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Initial Impressions.
Received my K100D Super yesterday and stayed up most of the night with it. I know it is going to be discontinued (rumored) in a month, but here is my initial review nonetheless. Package arrived via UPS from B&H camera. Everything was well packed and secured—plenty of boxes within boxes and noodles.
I admit, I was a little apprehensive about this because I could not find a local retailer that carried this model and thus was unable to try out the ergonomics before-hand. To my surprise, the 100 D Super fit my hand perfectly, noticibly bigger than the Nikon 40D I looked at. The Pentax also had a nice "heft" to it. The steel frame and carbon-composite shell feel noticibly more "tough", "stable" and "durable" than the Nikons or Canons I tried. One downside, I didn't realize before-hand that the camera did not include an A/C adaptor and that they sell for $100---but my mistake.
Initial instructions for camera set-up were easy to follow. One MAJOR gripe. I do not know why, but when you are in a "menu" mode. The "ok" button on the 4-way controller turns off the LCD display. That is, if I am in the setup menu and scroll down to lets say date/time and I want to open this submenu, I would expect to push "ok" to select that submenu. However pressing OK at this stage turns your LCD black. In order to access the submeu, you need to push the right hand control button---which is contrary to almost every other camera I have used and very counter-intuitive. My second gripe is the manual, which I find to be virtually incomprehensive with its [B brackets describing functions] rather than simply stating what button to push.
Once I worked my way through this, I was able to get the camera running and take some test shots. One thing I noticed immediately is that handholding this puppy is a LOT different than handholding my Kodak z650 P&S. Much heavier and harder to keep balanced. That said, I was able to quickly experiment with all the manual controls and found them easy to locate and use once I figured out where they were.
I really have no complaints about the external buttons. I found them nicely located with plenty of space (which I found was a major problem on the Nikon and Canon entry level SLRs) between them. It’s a little awkward having to hold the "AV" button in manual mode and then use the dial to adjust aperture, but it is easy enough once you get used to it. A separate aperture dial would have been nice though.
The initial pictures I took indoors turned out excellent. I was able to get great detail on close macro shots and was able to creatively alter the color and mood with the white balance and flash features. Focusing worked nicely. I did, however, have a problem with the anti-shake feature. For some reason it cause MORE blur and MORE shake. I will have to consult the manual to see what I am doing wrong.
In all, I really enjoy the camera and despite its few quirks, I believe I received good value for my money and look forward to learning to use it to its full capacity. On the other hand, the free photo-editing software is horrid. I found it extremely difficult to use and could not for the life of me figure out how the "laboratory" and "browser" software worked with each other. I am usually able to easily figure out computer software, but at 2:00am I called it quits. I was able to use the "autofix" feature in the browser software, which did nicely enhance my images. Again, I will need to examine the manual more closely, but the software, to say the least, is not user friendly.
Again, overall I am very happy. My two majory problems are the anti-shake and the editing software. Based on my initial impressions, I think this is a quality camera at a good price.
If anyone knows what the deal is with the anti-shake feature, I would appreciate any advice---thanks.
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