Pentax K10d and Sigma 18-50 F28 lens

"However, I do find it odd, to buy a camera that doesn't have a specific feature you want (B&W mode), then complain it hasn't got it. And the slow writing of RAW files is frankly baffling, does he mean the buffer should be bigger, so he can take more than 10 in a row? "

My fault entirely. I expected that the camera would have this mode - every other DSLR that I have come across has it.

I took photos in RAW and had to wait a few extra seconds while the camera recorded the image to the card. Litterally I could see the record light for several seconds. I am hardly a professional photographer....yes I shoot the occasional wedding, model, or band but hardly a die-hard pro. For me to notice that lag time means something is not right.

I did not use a super blazing fast SD card - Kingston Elite which are relatively quick cards. The D80 has zero lag when writing to this exact card.

TYR - lovely photos.

I don't want to hassle you with an extended argument about all this - if you're not happy with the camera then fair enough, and sometimes even one feature in something can be important enough to put you off. If you want to do lots of B&W, and not have to do anything at all to see the results on the LCD, then maybe the K10D's not for you.

However, I am puzzled. You've said you don't want to do much PP on the computer. So what do you want RAW for, in circumstances where you might want to bracket the contrast?

If you do in-camera RAW-JPEG conversion, as I understand it, you end up only with the JPEG that you'd have got if you'd taken the picture in JPEG mode in the first place. And of course, you can convert the same RAW image in-camera in as many different ways as you like - all the JPEG options, in fact.

So having to be in JPEG to do contrast bracketing doesn't seem a limitation.

RAW is what the sensor saw. So contrast bracketing (where all it does, I believe, is apply different parameters to the generation of the JPEG) is pointless, since you have all the information that you can use later.

I suppose you could argue that you ought to be able to do it in RAW+, to get the best of both worlds. And I'd agree with you, but it's a bit of a minor point I think.

So, you couldn't take any photos whilst this light was on? I'm still puzzled. You should have been able to do a burst of about 10 RAWs in a row before things slowed down. But then perhaps it was the card you were using.

Oh well, bit of a moot point now. I've played with a few other DSLRs and I can honestly say the K10D does not seem slow to me.

Hope you find what you're looking for.

Dan

I can do 8 with a really, really old 1 GB card, which I got long before all these super fast ones came out. And even after the first 8, it'll still keep going at about 1 every two seconds. That's in RAW. In JPEG it'll go continuously indefinitely, even with the poxy old card.

If you really need a >8 frame RAW buffer then I guess the K10D is the wrong camera.

According to the reviews at dpreview the D80 is marginally faster than the K10D in write/review speed - 1.6s for RAW for the K10D compared to 1.4s for the D80. In continuous drive mode the K10D is faster and for more shots (10 v 6 with RAW, unlimited v 110 in Jpeg).

The D80 RAW file flush timings are a little better than the K10D 2.2s v 2.3s however that's probably because the D80 produces smaller files (8.6Mb v 11.6Mb) and the K10D is actually faster with Jpegs.

This is what dpreview had to say about the D80:

"The D80 demonstrates good fast write times, we can estimate around 6 MB/sec for RAW images with fast cards such as the ones used in this test. The D80 also has very good buffering, all image processing and card write occurs in the background and never interrupts your ability to take the next shot. "

And about the K10D:

"The K10D posted very fast write times of over 10MB/sec for RAW files using fast cards such as those used here. The slightly longer than average write delay of between 1.5 and 1.8 seconds doesn't ever get in the way in a normal shooting environment thanks to the K10D's good buffering, all image processing and card write occurring in the background."

So it sounds like yet again your statement is nonsense.

"You've said you don't want to do much PP on the computer. So what do you want RAW for, in circumstances where you might want to bracket the contrast? "

Honestly, I did not play with the bracketing extensively. This is something I am still learning. I expected that 'extended' bracketing would not switch to jpeg. Anyway, that was not a critical factor in my overall decision. I have started to learn bracketing in hopes of checking out HDR type of photos down the road.

Regarding write time - thank you for clarifying - I did not know that I could keep photographing while the camera did its thing on the card. I should have played with this more so but I hadnt seen that type of lag on other dslr's. Kingston Elite are decent cards....I only use Kington, Sandisk, or Panasonic SD cards.

I wish to end the discussion here. I know you guys love your Pentax cameras and I have an admiration for Pentax as well. It was good to experience the K10d. Thank you all.