K10D in 2025

A few weeks ago I compared some old photos taken on my first digital camera – a 2004 Olympus – with similar ones on a modern equivalent. The colour rendition in particular got me thinking about CCD v. CMOS sensors, with the result that I bought a Pentax K10D (£95 from Ffordes) to complement my K5IIs. It’s currently paired with an old FA 24-90 that normally sits on my ME-Super. I haven’t done a side-by-side comparison, but what stands out about the K10D is the vibrant colours, rendition of sky/clouds, and subjectively natural (film-ish?) feel. I’m shooting in Adobe RAW, and noticed less need for processing than with the K5 – the exception is sharpening, where I have batch-sharpened everything to 75. The downsides are low light shooting – maximum ISO is 1600, and even 800 is slightly grainy – slightly less detail, and slower/less positive autofocus. So far very impressed with the camera, and while it has obvious limitations it's a useful addition for fine weather landscape-type photography.

Nice results, they all have natural looking colours especially on what I think is Wisteria.

I do like these - the colours do tend to have something really nice and natural about them - especially in the over-saturated world we live in today. Keep shooting with whatever combination suits you, and keep posting

I bought one in 2007 but soon found out it suffered from 'Back Focus' using 'Auto-Focus' and got fed up with it especially as I was GIVEN some OLYMPUS E Series and 2 Canon EOS cameras which are all accurate. BUT I took it to the annual Maldon Mud Race using a manual focus SMC Pentax-A 400mm f5.6 lens and got good results at ISO 400 and f9 or f11 on lens

I have the Samsung GX10 equivalent version of the K10D and love. It does have some limitations as detailed by the OP above but it is a stellar sunny day day camera.

Thank you for comments. Now I have used it more, I'm making sure to check that the autofocus has locked on - it can hunt far more than I'm used to with the K5. I've also noticed some small dust bugs which will mean a sensor clean at some point. My K20 was the same - the problem seems to have been solved on the K5.

Enjoying this sunny weather - it suits the K10!