Finally Entering the Digital Age

[KMCCLA]

I have finally entered the digital camera age. A few years ago (back in June of 2011) I posted here a question about want a good digital K mount camera would be to get. I was advised to get a Pentax K100D. Well, today I finally got one. However it is used, and does not have the manual with it. I am somewhat lucky enough the current lenses (with the exception on my big 300 mm lens, will not fit, however it fits on the converter). Any ideas where I can get a manual, and how hard is the camera use? I have manual lenses, so I guess to learn how to use them on that as well. Also, what is a good battery to get? How about a memory card, what size and/or bran works best. All I have ever had is film cameras, and I intend on keeping it (I rearranged my camera bag, and have both of them in it now). Having only film and manual cameras, and the cost of film and processing, had led me to going digital. However, how hard will it be to use a manual lens on this body? Will it be mostly like the film body, where I have to set speed, and aperture?

From what I can tell it looks like a fairly good camera, and I paid $150 for it (about what I wanted). I am lucky enough to know someone in my radio club that also has one, so I can ask him for help as well. Hopefully before too long I will be out taking pictures with the new camera, I might even post them here.

[dl4449]

This should help

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[ken1953]

Welcome to the "digital world"! Glad to see you finally joined in.

Usually, you can go to the Pentax site and download a free .pdf manual. They may ask you to register your camera, but the time is worth it. As for memory cards, I stick with SanDisk. I've never had a problem with any of my SanDisk cards. I have them in all my cameras, and phones.

As for using the camera, if it's anything like my *ist DL, it's extremely easy and intuitive. It's been a few years since I last looked at a K100D, but if my memory hasn't failed me, you should have little or no trouble with the learning curve.

Good luck..
Ken

[mattb]

Welcome to the digital age! I did the same thing a few years ago when I went from a ME Super to a K-x and I haven't looked back. Now I'm using a K-5 and love it.
I've never used a K100d and from my understanding it's an entry level camera and obviously a few years old now. Being on the lower end gives you fewer buttons and more menu navigation to do certain things and no weather proofing, but still good imaging for that generation. What you may find is sensor noise (digital grain) comes into play much sooner than with newer cameras. Starting with the K-x Pentax switched to a Sony sensor that produces much less noise at higher ISO levels than the previous generations so your K100 isn't going to be a low light powerhouse.

To use manual lenses you need to find a menu setting that says something like "Allow aperture ring" and enable it. Then when you shoot, put the camera in M mode, set the aperture on the lens and push the green button for a meter reading. The camera will suggest a shutter speed to match your current f-stop and ISO. You may find some lenses tend to over or under expose with this kind of metering so you may need to adjust from there. Without enabling that setting the camera will always leave the lens wide open.

I use high capacity (16 or 32 GB) class 10 SDHC cards on my K-5 but your camera may not support the newer capacities and speeds or may not be able to take advantage of them. I think something like a 8GB Class 4 card might be the biggest/fastest you can get but the good news is they should be pretty cheap. Sandisk is a respected brand.

I always shoot in RAW for more headroom to tame highlights, bring detail out in shadows, and be able to fix WB issues. RAW takes a lot more space but for me it's worth it.

The Pentax board here is pretty slow so if you want more activity and info specific to Pentax check out the Pentax Forums. Lots of activity and info specific to our gear there.

Finally, just about all old K mount lenses should fit. What is your 300mm? I was just using my old A* 300mm f/4 last night on my K-5 without problems. The only thing you need to be careful of is old Ricoh lenses that have an additional pin but are otherwise a K mount. That pin can get stuck in the AF mechanism on a new K mount body and make it very hard to remove. If you do have any of these it's a quick and easy procedure to remove the pin and then you can use the lens without issue on new digital bodies.

Matt

[Transit]

I have finally entered the digital camera age. A few years ago (back in June of 2011) I posted here a question about want a good digital K mount camera would be to get. I was advised to get a Pentax K100D. Well, today I finally got one. However it is used, and does not have the manual with it. I am somewhat lucky enough the current lenses (with the exception on my big 300 mm lens, will not fit, however it fits on the converter). Any ideas where I can get a manual, and how hard is the camera use? I have manual lenses, so I guess to learn how to use them on that as well. Also, what is a good battery to get? How about a memory card, what size and/or bran works best. All I have ever had is film cameras, and I intend on keeping it (I rearranged my camera bag, and have both of them in it now). Having only film and manual cameras, and the cost of film and processing, had led me to going digital. However, how hard will it be to use a manual lens on this body? Will it be mostly like the film body, where I have to set speed, and aperture?

From what I can tell it looks like a fairly good camera, and I paid $150 for it (about what I wanted). I am lucky enough to know someone in my radio club that also has one, so I can ask him for help as well. Hopefully before too long I will be out taking pictures with the new camera, I might even post them here.

Hi there,
Great to hear you have got the K100D.
It is an excellent camera that brought me into digital too.
I guess you have the manual by now and have read it from cover to cover
I recommend sanyo eneloop batterys which last for ages. helps to get a set with their own charger if possible.
If you say which lenses you have I can say more about settings on lens and on camera.
Check to see if has been updated with the latest firmware ( that is the software that controls it ) several updates included ability to use the new larger capacity sdhc memory cards.
Although it is a couple of generations old the 6MP sensor is very good. I used to leave it in iso 800 as the noise was still low ( noise being the colour specs that appear in images as sensitivity (Iso) is raised.) Thus the shutter speed would be higher and pics sharper.
Please ask any questions and show us some pics you have taken !

cheers
Pete in NZ

[bordovin]

Welcome to the digital age! I did the same thing a few years ago when

[KMCCLA]

I have started using my "new" camera. Although it took me close to a year to take the card in and get pictures. Here are four that I took.

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