K10D arrives in Jessops

I was in Cambridge this afternoon and finally got to see the K10 'in the plastic' for the first time as it is on display in both branches of Jessops. In the larger main shop the price with 18-55 is £849 and the price round the corner is £799 with the same lens.

For those who are yet to see the camera, be prepared for it's singular lack of any inspiring visible feature,...just the usual black plastic 'blobby' shape apparently styled rather than designed. Another wonderful example from the 'Ford mondeo School of Art and Design'.

Hopefully it performs a lot better than it looks.......

I can't believe they're selling them (or trying to) at this price. The RRP for the kit is £749, body only £649. I still think it's so they can have them in their sale with '£150 off!' and still be selling them at the same price as everyone else.

Cameraworld in Chelmsford have them in stock too, the grip also. Had a play last week after doing some christmas shopping. Felt nice and solid to me, looks no worse or better than most other current DSLRs (although much better than the cheaper Canons in my opinion).

Dan

To be fair they now have the K10 listed on their website at £699,....However, it seem strange that BOTH branches had 'wrong' prices shown. Then again, this IS Jessops so it might just be the usual high level of product awareness and operational efficiency.....

in fairness when I was last in there the Cambs branch (the bigger one) seemed to be staffed by people who actually knew one end of a camera from the other. They never once tried to sell my mate a Canon (may have had something to do with us packing 4 Pentax SLRS between the two of us, two of them around my neck).

One of the three staff even recognised my Pentax Auto 110. That did impress me, I've never met anyone in a camera shop who'd seen one before.

I was already using mine by 30th Dec, with a good price, a bargain SD card and supporting my local camera shop!

It's a very, very nice machine.

Jacobs on Tottenham Court Road were also selling them at higher prices....

I enquired if I could 'manipulate' one... but apparently they have been flying off the shelves...plus I had already spent 500 pounds on some new glass......

Just noticed Jessops.com are selling the Samsung GX10 with 18-55 for £599 - the same price most places are selling the K10D body only and £100 less than they're selling the equivalent Pentax kit for.

I would've sacrificed the Pentax label for a free kit lens...

Seems to be close to the going price for the Samsung which does not appear to be available body only. I have seen it for £589.99, with the 18-55 kit lens, at Cameras2u:

http://www.cameras2u.com/products/details.cfm?PRODUCT=SAMGX101855

If you already have the 18-55 lens then I think the Pentax K10 body, at around £599, is a better choice.

Glyn

Interesting how Cameras2U are trying to get you to buy AA batteries with it. I suspect they will have a few unhappy customers when they find out that the camera doesn't take AAs.

They also fail to mention the camera's compatibilty with all Pentax lenses, which I should have thought is a major selling point.

G

Cameras2U also list AAA batteries as an accessory under the Gx10, very confusing!

If you have an interest in the Gx10 then the manual is available as a download on the Samsung UK site here:

http://www.samsungcamera.co.uk/product/pro_view.asp?prol_uid=1925&cat_uid=62

It makes interesting reading. Not only have some of the buttons on the back gone square but they seem to have reworked all the menus. It appears to have most of the same functionality as the K10 but, for example, the menu for setting the range for the auto ISO has been shifted around 90 degrees.

I think there was an interesting statement in there somewhere that said you could use all the Pentax accessories with the Samsung. However while it does seem to have the socket for the grip I could not find the battery selection menu entry in the manual.

I have to admit I was tempted but the K10 was available first and I already have 2 of the 18-55 kit lenses. I also worried about getting the same level of firmware upgrade support that we seem to get from Pentax. Its not clear to me if the earlier Samsungs have had the equivalent of the recent updates to the DS & DL range.

Glyn

I don't trust Samsung as a company, I've been stung by their tech support a couple of times and will be very wary before buying from them again.

Been on a boat built by Samsung (Norfolk Line's new ferries) - vibrated alarmingly - fillings nearly fell out....

I notice though they say you can use lense from GX-1L and GX-1S with it, great, take off 18-55 and replace it with another 18-55 - how versatile is that.

I have also been looking at the Samsung manual for some time now,...I also picked up on the coy reference to the only apparent accessories for this camera in the phrase; "use accessories for Pentax camera"....!!?

This leads me to think that this camera is but a passing excercise for Samsung before they move on to their own dSLR models. I would still like to know what the exact relationship is between the GX-10 and the k10D as it seems an odd strategy to me which benefits the marketing attempts of neither company.

I think that, for my money at least, there is no advantage of buying the Samsung just to get the 18-55 gratis. if the price diferential was much greater that would be a different matter but for me this is going to be a serious purchase and I don't think the 'poor man's Sony' can quite hack it...

I think I'll go to a well established camera maker as always,....old habits die hard!

However, previous Samsung models have been marketed with 4 year waranty in the US....I'm still trying to find out if that applies here in the UK on the GX-10 as this could cause me a total rethink....

I think the benefits to both companies are pretty clear, even if there is some marketing confusion.

Samsung gets a ready-made set of cameras with no effort except for writing a few cheques.

Pentax gets the said cheques, plus the chance to sell many more lenses and other accessories. Samsung is now committed to the K-mount, and even if they design their own cameras in future, this must advance the prospects of the K-mount.

If anything happens to Pentax, Samsung will hopefully continue to make cameras that will accept all our Pentax lenses.

G

SeeBuyFly in Luchthaven Amsterdam Schiphol

849 euros body only, another 100 with 18-55 lens

Liked the camera, but needs the grip.

Would have bought the camera there and then, but the small matter of having to replace the satellite navigations system in my car is higher in the list of priorities