Dynamic range compared to compact camera's

During the vacation I wanted to make some nice shots of a sunset over a lake and to do this with my K20D the only way is to use bracketing and make 3 of 5 shots at different shutter speeds to prevent highlights from blowing out and shadows from being completely invisible.
The end results can be great when you do this but it is quite a bit of work.
When you use a half decent compact (my wife uses a Panasonic DMC-TZ20) it produces quite good results just out of the camera without bracketing. Is this because of the electronic shutter where it can "play" with individual parts of the sensor to get the correct exposure? I can't imagine that this little compact has a sensor with a higher dynamic range then the sensor in my K20D.

My understanding is that the compacts apply 'fill lighting' after capture (and before JPG save).

Can't remember off-hand which model of Pentax dSLR provided the same feature (shadow correction + highlight correction). Think it was the K7

As far as 'real' DR goes, dxomark.com has measured values for most cameras.
e.g. K20D = 11.1 Evs; K3 = 13.4 Evs; MX-1 = 11.3 Evs

Checking out the Panasonics they seem to have about the same as the K20D (i.e. around 11 Evs)

You'll probably find with a bit of Lightroom control you'll get good results from a single RAW shot. Certainly on the K5 (which has a massive 14.1 Evs DR) I find I haven't used ND grad filters or multiple shots in a looong time!

Matt

sounds like a difference in the JPEG processing being done for you.
In pure RAW format the pentax will likely have more dynamic range and more wiggle room for adjusting the levels/sliders in post processing.

However if you want better Jpegs straight out of the camera then perhaps others with the same camera could offer some suggestions. Perhaps a different colour profile for instance would help. Shadow and highlight correction would help or in camera hdr for really difficult light and dark scenes for instance.

In camera Jpegs are just a best guess assumption as to how you want the eventual picture to look.

Thanks for the insights!