The K100D arrived today, my first DSLR, an upgrade from the Canon S1-IS. A few initial impressions, aimed mostly at other long-zoom point-and-shoot users who are thinking about starting the journey to DSLR-land.

First thought, within 5 seconds after picking up camera and lens together: Geez, this thing is a rock! Sizes are not that different:

S1: 111 x 78 x 66 (camera data from DPReview)
K100D: 129 x 93 x 70

But the K100D is way heavier:

K100D: 660g
Canon XTi: 556g
S1-IS: 469g

And the body needs a lens:

Pentax 18-55: 225g (kit lens) (lens data from slrgear.com)
Pentax 50-200: 255g
Sigma 18-125: 385g
Sigma 18-200: 405g

So with the 18-125, which will be my walkabout lens, I'm lugging 1040g, just over twice what I'm used to. Almost exactly twice with the 50-200. I don't have the kit lens or the 18-200 but added them for comparison, since I thought hard about buying them.

I now understand a lot more about why DSLR owners still buy fixed lens cameras. And those thin pancake primes are looking better and better...

Image quality absolutely lived up to expectations. I could tell within minutes that the K100D with an 18-125 is not just an expensive long zoom point-and-shoot. It is much more sensitive to light and has much more dynamic range. Shooting some nearby scenes I have often shot with the S1, I saw objects and colors that weren't apparent on the S1. This was mostly good but sometimes bad: I will have to adjust my sense of what will sit quietly in the dark background of a picture.

The greater depth of field was apparent but not a major problem. AF hunted some at the long end of the 18-125 but was way faster than the S1.

Another small difference which had a big effect was the EVF of the S1 vs. the real optical viewfinder of the K100D. The relatively low resolution of the EVF (114K pixels) is one of its real weaknesses of the whole Sx-IS series. I knew the K100D would be much better but was still surprised at the level of detail I was seeing. On the bad side, I did miss the fact that the S1's EVF shows you, although in low-res, the exact picture it will take if you push the button. I tend to rely on that, looking and fiddling with settings until the effect is what I want. Can't do that with the K100D. Also, because the viewfinder doesn't show me the picture after I take it, as the S1's EVF does, the whole user experience seems somehow faster.

Changing lenses was not a problem at all. Twist on, twist off. Storing and carrying extra lenses is more a burden than the actual change itself. The long term issue is how much of a pain it will be to clean the sensor---there's already one spot showing up on some of my pictures, so I will need to deal with this sooner rather than later.

Manual focus was one of my pet peeves with the S1. It has manual focus, but you have to push two buttons on opposite sides of the camera at the same time to use it, and it's a challenge on the EVF to see the effect of the changes you are making. So I made it a point to use manual focus for some of my early shots. I wasn't getting manual focus all the time---there's another skill I need to work on---but as a raw newbie I was getting the focus right about as often as I did on the S1, and a manual focus ring is many times easier and faster to use.

If I hadn't bought the K100D I would have bought the Canon S3-IS, which can be had for half to a third of what I paid for my the K100D and lenses. But I'm already getting shots which I know I couldn't get with the S1, especially in terms of colors and dynamic range. So far, it feels like it's worth the extra cost---though I still wish the thing weighed less than it does!


--Brett Turner


All images post-processed moderately, reduced to 480 width and sharpened. All taken with the Sigma 18-125. Time in the EXIF data isn't correct (I need to set the camera's clock).

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r82/BrettRTurner/fallleaves.jpg
1/125, F5.6, 125mm, ISO 800

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r82/BrettRTurner/trees-sky.jpg
1/125, F9.5, 30mm, ISO 200
Similar shots on the S1 were trees, silhouetted against the sky.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r82/BrettRTurner/fall-foilage.jpg
1/125, F4.5, 45mm, ISO 800
The S1 would not have provided in late afternoon light the same variety of reds, oranges and yellows.