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| Brand: Pentax
Category: Photography
List Price: $699.95
Buy New: $469.99
You Save: $229.96 (33%)
New (26) Used (1)
Avg. Customer Rating:  74 reviews
Sales Rank: 158
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Floppy Disk Drive: None
Optical Zoom: 3
Display Size: 2.7
Maximum Focal Length: 55
Minimum Focal Length: 18
Maximum Resolution: 10
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 5.2 x 3.7 x 2.9
MPN: 19554
Model: 19554
UPC: 027075139855
EAN: 0027075139855
ASIN: B0012Q72IY
Release Date: March 6, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Pleased May 26, 2008
3 out of 26 found this review helpful
OK, I'll review this purchase. To begin with I will say that 4 stars is as high as I rate anything...it's just a thing. Earning five stars will only become a factor after much use and practical evaluation.
I am pleased with my purchase. Great value. And as with most modern hard- and software, it offers more than I need. So if it works for many years (unlike my first digital camera), I'll be very pleased.
That's all for now.
Just got this camera Last week, so still learning! May 19, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I just baught this camera last week, after reaching the limit of where I felt I could grow with a point and shoot cam. I wanted to move into the more versital world of DSLR. So far so good. I have had good luck with this camera, as stated in other reviews it does have a tendecy to be off a little on color, but not enough you notice when printing out pic.
I find the menus easy to use, and the camera fits into your hands well. I am a big guy 6+ with large hands and I foun. the Cannon and Olympus Cams to small for my hands (on the flip side, my wife is a petit woman and finds this camera a little big)
I have been using this for a week or two so far in conjuction with Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 and I have been able to create some great orginal images.
Pros:
- Sharp, crip images
- Quick Auto Focus
- Easy Menus
Cons:
- Bit of a learning cureve from a point and shoot (To be expected since you want the extra versotility, but it takes time to master)
- Colors are a little off, but not enough to distract from this picture.
Please read the full review for this cam on DP Review.
Wonderful prosumer DSLR May 19, 2008
18 out of 19 found this review helpful
Extensive comparison between Pentax, Nikon, Sony, Olympus and Canon led me to pick the K200 as my first DSLR and after a few weeks of shooting it's starting to feel comfortable and so very much better than my old Canon point-and-shoot. Comments from a newbies perspective:
The menus are truly a pleasure for older eyes. Choosing the 'large' text only affects the line on which the cursor rests, so as not to overcrowd the display. Both sizes of text are very readable. If you wear or need glasses, you'll like the menus.
There are two menu systems to consider when operating the camera. The 'Fn' button on the right brings up a smaller set of menus for ISO, white balance, and shooting 'mode' (single frame, burst mode, bracketing exposures & etc) and a few other functions that you will be most likely to need to access when shooting. This allows you to dive into your most-needed settings without having to slog around in the larger full menu set. Both menus are well designed to be shallow lists rather than deep trees. Hurray Pentax!
Ergonomics are good for me, a medium-to-large handed lefty. As others mention, the camera is large and no lightweight. Oddly (for such a big camera), the buttons on the 4-way controller ought to be a bit larger but it's very useable as-is.
The kit lens is intended for generic use: it's not meant to be extremely good in low-light situations without flash, and if you're looking for a lot of zoom you'll be buying another lens shortly. It's a compromise, a good lense for most peoples daily usage. There's nothing really 'wrong' with it, but it may not be the only lens you'll want to own. The kit lens uses 52mm filters, while other lenses you eventually buy may use other sizes. You should get a UV filter and a polarizing filter right away and leave the UV filter on most of the time to protect the lens. Either of these filters can make a huge difference in the quality of your pictures, with the polarizing filter giving you the ability to 'dial out' glare and reflected or scattered light.
You Will Read The Fine Manual. The Product Description section on Amazon that claims the K200D is 'as friendly as a simple point-&-shoot' is quite a stretch of the truth. The manual is pretty good, luckily. Your best bet might be to set the camera up on a tripod indoors and actually work through any section that confuses you. Hint: learn about using Aperture Priority and take series of shots that use f-stop to adjust depth of field. I'm sure this camera works great as a point-and-shoot but that's probably not why you're spending this much; save the auto modes for things like urban photography where you're not always sure what's going to pop up next.
The USB connection works fine connecting to my Asus F3J series laptop running Debian Linux, with the camera appearing as a hot-plugged USBFS file system. Hurray for Linux!
There are two 'Cons' against buying this camera. There is no 'live' view through the LCD, though there is a 'preview' mode that displays a frozen frame. So if you want to frame shots by looking through the LCD this might NOT be the camera for you. I shoot through the viewfinder at all times so this is fine for me, but might really disappoint someone who expects to be able to see their shots lined up in the LCD and changing as they move the camera.
The second possible issue is the USB connector. The end that plugs into the camera is a sort of micro-mini d-shaped connector. The tiny jack on the camera is one exception to the 'built like a tank' design of the k200, and I'm not sure how it'll hold up. It's so small that it's hard to tell when plugging in the cable which orientation is correct. Maybe other cameras are no better, but I would have liked to see a larger, more robust connecter here even if it had to be proprietary. If you plan to remove the memory card when pulling your images this won't be an issue.
I expect this camera to keep me confused and entertained for years, and feel very pleased and proud to have chosen it over other great entry-level DSLRs like the Olympus Evolt series, the Sony A series and the various Nikon D models. Four AA batteries, rugged weather sealed construction, a reasonable price and a huge, easily legible LCD made this camera a winner for me.
Brings a lot to play with May 15, 2008
16 out of 16 found this review helpful
I'm not a pro photographer, but my transition from a film reflex to a compact digital a few years ago was painful, I missed too much being able to bend the traditional limits of cameras, especially to take night pics. I finally convinced myself to get "good" digital camera. I hesitated a long time between the SLR-quality Sigma DP1, the tiny Olympus E-420 and this Pentax. The reasons for my final choice were a) the great first reviews, b) the quality of the build and "ruggedness" of the camera (seals, AA batteries), c) the availability of pancake lenses to limit bulkiness.
I've had the camera for a week now. The first images came out beautiful and sharp. I also like the camera's programmability (define what each button does) and I think there is a lot to win by reading the manual thoroughly. At the moment I'm taking most pictures in RAW + JPG and fine-tuning the raw image if I think it deserves it, but I like the raw button which allows you to switch easily between file formats.
Because I like tuning things myself, I don't use most of the "easy" functions, but they hardly ever are in my way.
Overall, if you're going for a reflex, want good quality and don't mind a couple newbie-like features, I really recommend this camera.
Canon Convert May 15, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Have been a Canon fan for the past 30 years and was looking for a new digital camera. Read a review about the Pentax camera and coupling it with the Pentax 18-250 lens. My wife was doubtful at first, but after using it for the past month she is convinced of the usefulness. It does everything that I expect and more because of the antishake feature. I didn't realize what a difference that would make. The selling point was the fact that it is the most water resistant and dust resistant camera that I know of. For me, this was a very important feature because it will be used for outside activities. The picture quality was fantastic for me. The only thing I am considering is upgrading to the 20D
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