So I had the Pentax K20D out for its inaugural outing of car-spotting, even though the DA 16-45mm f/4 lens is a little short for the task, being a rough equivalent of a 24-70mm lens on a full-frame body.
The Samsung-made 14.6 megapixel CMOS sensor gives a little leeway for cropping if necessary, so it wasn't that much of a hindrance. Pentax has an 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 zoom that was shipped as a kit lens with some of their nicer crop sensor DSLRs and is therefore available for a song on the used market. I might pick one up for comparison purposes.
These were shot in RAW and run through a quick auto JPEG conversion in Photoshop.
2 comments:
My old (now semi-retired) K100D had a much smaller 6 MP sensor, but the color rendering and 3D-"pop" (I really don't know how to define that) of its images were what kept me using it for years after it was kinda-sorta "obsolete" from a technical standpoint. The K20D's still have nice color rendering (you should try some spring flowers with oranges and reds in them) but it lacks the older sensors something.
Rather than the 18-135mm you might want to consider looking for an 18-250mm (there aren't a lot of them on the market) or even an 18-270mm SDM that has the focus motor in the lens and is almost silent in operation. The 18-270mm is permanently on my first K20D as my go-to walk-around lens. My copy is very sharp all the way through its zoom range, and that range is still utterly incredible to me. From a 27mm wide angle to a 405mm telephoto all in one (relatively, when not extended) compact lens.
Yeah, the K100 had a CCD sensor rather than a CMOS and some people swear they do better color rendering.
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