6 months with GX20

I was one of those people who bought a GX-20 for £299 from Jacobs earlier in the year and I thought I'd share my thoughts on it after about 6 months use.

Firstly, I think i got a complete bargain at that price, I mean Park were selling Gx-10's for that price at the time and some places were selling K10D's for for than that also!

After a couple of thousand shots in some vastly differant locations / light etc i think i can now compare this camera to my trusty K100D.

Firstly, I love the layout of the camera, the 2 e-dials and all of the other things that make it easier to use compared to the K100D.

The other things i like about the camera are:

I find that the dynamic range is vastly improved, there are far fewer occasions when I lose highlight detail than there was on the K100D.

Samsungs JPEG engine is really very good, if you get the exposure spot on there is no benefit in shooting RAW (although I still do!).

The version of Silypix you get with Samsung is far better than any versions you get with Pentax.

The metering seems much better compared to the K100D.

The high iso performance is very good - iso 3200 is printable at A4 (with a little help from Neat image), providing your exposure is spot on (see cons).

The build quality is impressive and I was pleased that the heat of Egypt (50degC) didnt kill it!

The things it dont like:

The shadow noise is horrendous, even at iso 100. If you try to boost the shadows in RAW you find out just how much noise there is there. If you shoot high iso you have to make sure you have ETTR because otherwise the noise can be ruin the shot.

The RAW files are massive compared to the K100D.

And thats about it really for the negatives.

Anyone agree with me?

Hi, I've been a GX20 for about 9 months now.
I hadn't noticed the shadow noise, mainly because it's the first DSLR I've owned and have nothing to compare it to.
I don't really agree with you about the JPEG output, but I'll admit that the better I get in terms of getting exposure right, the more happy I am with them. I shoot RAW as I prefer to get the noise control and sharpening spot on in Silkipix (which I prefer using to CS4 camera raw!)
I totally agree with everything else and really enjoy using it.

Its a great camera, never really found issue with noise in shadows. I also use a K110d & there are differences.

The K110d images are brighter than the GX20
The GX20 images have better tones & skin tone too
The metering on the GX20 is far superior to the K110d

The RAW files I have to admit are huge compared to the K110d

I do wish I had got another GX20 in the Park's deal, that was the bargain of the year!!!

Had mine since august now, very happy with it, now i have the sigma 17-70 i am really going to step it up a bit this year,