Poll - who would £1000 for a full frame K10D?

"........Personally, I'd rather see someone come up with a sensor with a more sensable aspect ratio....."

Here, here!..........But it's a folorn hope and i'm not holding my breath....

The reason so many "wedding", and indeed all kinds of pro photographers offer prints with a 4:5 or 4:3 ratio is because it makes a much nicer product to actually look at. The same goes with most media use of images such as book illustration etc......actually, if you have a look inside any decent art gallery you will see it is long established.

The 2:3 is yet again a throw over from 35mm,...one can only hope that eventually 2nd generation digital cameras will appear which have been properly designed rather than the '35mmSLR with sensor' models which they think everybody wants.

Personally, I want a 23mm X 23mm sensor with the choice of vert. or horiz. JPEG's instantly chosen by pressure switch under my right thumb and RAW square images so that i can decide during editing as I have for the past 30 years with roll film,..and the opportunity to make square images if i wish to without wasting pixels. The Rolleiflex and Hassleblad didnt get to be the pro workhorses they were for nothing.

When you stop and think about it, it is quite laughable that with all this amazing technology, not to mention the mindless complexity, that you still have to actually flip cameras over physically to get vert. images.....!?!! It's a pig on tripod as you need all kinds of brackets and paraphenalia.... IF I DO go the K10D route this is one of the big penalties for me which caused me to give up on 35mm (Canon F1) all those years ago.

Most labs have no problem with the 3:2 ratio, it is after all the same ratio as 35mm film. But with 4:3 such as the Oly produces can give problems and random cropping.

Not every image will suit the same aspect ratio, so I make images of all sorts of shapes and print them myself.

The only constant is that I print them on a sheet of A3 paper. I then cut it in a rotary trimmer to whatever shape the actual image is, usually leaving a neat white line around it.

So I don't think it really matters what the aspect ratio of the sensor is...

[quote="MattMatic"]Hmm, they reckon you can get 59 (compressed?) PEF images on a 1 GB card? I get about 90 10MB PEF's on a 1 GB card at the moment. I assume it's a typo.

Tim,
No typo, just specs & manual written before they added compression. Looks like the firmware team has been busy!
(And compression was one key thing for me - so glad it seems they've included it )
Perhaps that also opens the way for higher bit depths on RAW with a sensible file size

Matt

Oh goody, looks like I won't have to add a bundle more SD cards to the shopping list then.


And to answer the original question in this thread, No I wouldn't. I've never printed anything bigger than a 10x8, and don't expect to. Therefore the DS and K10D are more than adequate in sensor size and resoloution. I think that colour depth (can't wait for the K10D) are likely to be more persuasive in future than sensor size and number of pixels.

Quite agree. That was top of my list too I've never had a problem even with 6Mp and printing 18x12", or even 36x24" canvas. But on the *ist-D the shadows can get very murky indeed. More dynamic range and cleaner shadows, especially in RAW (so you can tease out the detail in the RAW processor and PS) is essential.
10Mp is just a bonus, as is the SR

Just want some real samples (I've seen the Candle DNG file at 1600ISO and it's very, very impressive.)

Matt

Matt,

some interesting samples here:

http://www.pbase.com/geforcemx/k10d_sample

Steve

http://www.siblingmedia.com/

John, do you literally mean cut to SHAPE? as in other then rectangular or square.
We once had a guy speaker at the camera club with a triangular print, it looked great. I've been looking for a suitable subject so I can try it myself.

Of course it really comes down to the photographer and not the kit he is carrying, e.g. Michal Daniel http://www.640x480.net/album.php?posn=05_05_02_03_44_47pm&size=large

The K10D certainly promises to be a fabulous camera but I just wonder what else Pentax have up their sleeves and how quickly they'll be released.
By then end of '07 we'll probably have the K10DS followed shortly by the DS2 and K10DL and then the DL2...ho hum!

I kind of assumed that the 'K' was to further promote the fact that all K-mount lenses were usable, the '10' for 10Mp and the 'D' for Digital...........so where does the '100' in K100D come from? (blimey, wouldn't that be a camera )

Although rarely, I have been known to make prints an unusual shape if the subject suits it, and they have been well received.

Normally, I would decide what aspect ratio depending upon the subject and the composition. Also, of course, the intent of the picture - for example, square pictures tend to look stable and static and if that's what I want to portray, then that's how I might crop.

In the days before Photoshop I used a scalpel and a metal ruler...

Brilliant tip JR most people fail to look outside the box...as in the 4x6 box thier minilab offers.
I find odd shaped images work great with unusual compositions..although saddle composition is good place to start when using odd shapes.

Where does the '100' come from? Dunno! But I reckon the next Pentax DSLR will be the K200D, which will have a 10Mp sensor, cut down features from the K10D, no weather sealing etc. Announce it when they release the star lenses, see it in the Summer. When they release that, they'll announce the K1D, with all the features of the K10D, but better flash capabilities, faster processing and buffer, and the same sensor, but giving even better results through better noise reduction. Which will also allow a 3200 speed.

That's what I reckon, anybody want to place some bets?

Dan

FWIW, "K100D" came from the "K1000" - they thought as the K1000 was such an iconic camera, that K100D would be a close visual match and may itself become iconic
Matt