A Letter from Larry and my Response

Originally Posted by LRY
Hi Ben,

I'm glad you're on here to voice your experiences, particularly since you *disagree*. And since I own the K10D, I want to know how you're getting images better than Canon's XTi (400D)! Or the old XT(300D) for that matter, since my testing shows the XT to best the K10D as well. Who needs to measure it when you can see it like night and day at 100% onscreen?

All that said, if someone would kindly instruct or demonstrate to me and/or John that we messed up somehow, I will be the first to publicly say "I was wrong" and retract any misinformation or erroneous commentary. That's just expected, right? So, it would be great to reproduce that magazine's results myself, I'll look for it at the foreign newsstand. As I mentioned, the lens appears to be the weak point here.

Just so you know, I have no particular axe to grind, I'm not a Canon or Nikon or Leica fanboy, and I'm not hoping Canon or Pentax or anyone sponsors me someday. I really just want the camera to get outta my way while giving me solid, consistent results. For all my career, this has been Canon. I've used or owned other systems (Leica, Nikon, Hassy) and you know they all work great. Canon bodies (most) just happen to fit my hands better than others, although the K10D is very good too and offers all the tremendous usability I talk about in the review.

For people interested in buying a K10D, please remember that in my review I suggest that the comparisons are part of what we do here, but when you're doing photography, this debate is academic. Nobody except other photographers look at a great photo and say, "hmm, looks like a Nikon." In other words, it's the content, and it's a good bet it will always be that way. Getting the content can indeed be influenced by the gear however, so that's why we always come back to these comparisons. It's more interesting than politics, after all.

Anyway, I welcome any comments or suggestions (though I'm not online all the time). Ben, you wrote that you're using the 16-45mm zoom a lot. Maybe that's the lens to beat, because it sure isn't the little 21mm, unfortunately. Guess I'd better get busy looking for some old Leica R glass and an adapter... Just kidding, maybe someday but not now.

Best regards,
Larry

My assessment is based on how my images have translated to print media. I don't care about how it appears on the screen, as my final images are going to be viewed in "Gloss Trendy Press" magazines. Please remember that I am shooting RAW DNG and in almost all cases at 100-200 iso. What I am saying here is that the Sony 10.75 megapixel sensor performs very well for my usage when I know which support it will be featured in. In the case of magazine publication, the K10D works very well. If I know that a client wants to do a 3x4 meter Subway/Metro Advert, I will probably use a Pentax 645 with a digital back. As to the noise of the K10D compared to Canon, I too was surprised by" Chasseur D'Images" test results. They are very objective in their testing methodology and they were quite taken a back by the results. Pentax was as good at 200 iso as was the Sony at 100 iso. These results were published in issue number 290. Another thing to remember is that the Pentax K10D is still a baby. It has only been out officially since the New Year and will present another Firmware Update shortly. I have had some focussing issues that are being addressed by Pentax in Germany. I think it is in the interest of Pentax like that of any large conglomerate, to address the issues at hand and find solutions that work for most users.

Best Wishes
Ben

Who is this Larry who has confused camera performance with lens performance?

G

Sounds like a JPG tester to me
On screen at 100% the JPGs may appear "sharper" in the Canon, because they oversharpen

A real test should be RAW using the same application for both cameras. Or, as Ben points out, in the day-to-day usage.

Makes me wonder why Larry "owns a K10D" when he finds the XT/XTi sharper... fishy to me...

Matt

I did not know the 645 had a digital back. Learn something new every day....will still wait for the digital version of the 645, though....may buy that instead of the 10d....shopping for either the 10d or k100d next week.
we've been debating long enough....

And if you want a lot of in-camera sharpening, just turn up the sharpness slider in the menu. But then you get the plasticly look that Canon seems to produce on jpegs.

Shoot RAW and process each image to your personal preferences.

Benjikan

You produce excellent images, on screen and it seems in print media. The K10D has been well received, and is compared to the Nikon D200 class cameras, not the 400D. Nothing more needs to be said, except these days, it is not just the camera, but also the post-processing that has as much influence on results.

Larry - get a life.