Jay Lagare

After much deliberation, I finally made my decision and got the Pentax K100D. There are two major reasons why I chose it over the Nikon D40.

The first reason is the feature set: it has just too many higher-end DSLR features to pass up. In fact, you could mistake it for a higher-end camera if not for the 6 megapixel resolution.

This approach of putting higher-end features to a lower-end camera also applies to its bigger brother, the Pentax K10D, which I almost considered. Unfortunately, though it is a bargain by itself, it was just too pricey for my intended use.

The second reason is I was turned off by the local Nikon distributor’s representative who was all impatient and arrogant when I made inquiries. They may have their reasons and they may be makings tons of money selling Nikons but they sure won’t be making it from yours truly.

I’ve been playing around with my K100D for the past few days and I must say I’m quite happy so far. It’s very intuitive: I figured out most of the functions without reading the manual. And, of course, it takes great pictures. They could be a lot better in terms of composition, lighting, etc but in terms of image capture it’s pretty much spot on. More here as I get to know the camera better.

I’ve been planning to dabble in a bit more serious photography for some time now. Nothing so serious as to go for monster DSLRs with gazillions of pixels. Just enough to get to know the technical aspects. So the answer is one of those entry-level DSLRs that have been popping around all over lately. The choice has boiled down to the Pentax K100D and the Nikon D40. Both good entry-level DSLRs.

I’ve been comparing them for some time now and the way I see it, the K100D has higher-end DSLR features that the D40 does not: Shake Reduction (SR), dust removal, 11-point AF (D40 has 3-point AF), built-in AF motor, depth-of-field (DOF) preview, auto exposure bracketing, and top LCD status display. As a bonus, it uses widely available AA batteries. With 2500mAh and even 2700mAh rechargeable batteries becoming available, longevity should not be an issue.

On the other hand, the D40 has two things the K100D does not have: dedicated AF-assist lamp and large continuous shooting buffer. The D40 also is generally better in terms auto white balance (AWB), metering, noise reduction, and image processor.

However, in terms of picture quality, it’s a toss-up. From the sample shots I’ve seen, usually the K100D’s has better colors and the D40’s are sharper. But there are quite a lot of exceptions to this.

Tough choice.

The Pentax Optio WPi is a camera you can bring almost anywhere, almost anytime. It is small, compact, and waterproof! (up to 5 ft for 30 minutes). Wrap it in the optional silicone rubber skin and it’s also reasonably rugged, too. It’s got good camera specs too: 6 megapixels, 3x optical zoom, and 2″ LCD monitor. The picture quality is pretty good. At the default setting, pictures are on the soft side but this can be adjusted easily. Quite good enough for snap shooting use.

This is the second of the “h2o cameras”. The first being the WP. The W10 was already available when I got this camera then but decided to get the WPi because of its slightly more compact size and lower price. As of this writing, the WP and the WPi have been discontinued and the W20 is out.

One gripe I have with the WPi is that it doesn’t have an autofocus assist lamp and thus does poorly at focusing under low-light conditions. Good thing there’s a manual focus feature. Another is that water drops sometimes sticks onto the lens, causing smudged pictures. But that’s what you get for using a camera in wet conditions. You just have to wipe the lens before taking shots.

Rating: 4/5