Recently, DSLR cameras have become the most popular models for astronomical photography. Intended for serious amateur photographers and all types of shooting, DSLRs have several key features that make them particularly desirable for nighttime photography. First and most important, their large sensors offer much lower noise and cleaner images than do compact point-and-shoot digital cameras, especially at ISO 400 and higher. DSLRs feature interchangeable lenses— or direct attachment to a telescope’s focuser —making them by far the most versatile cameras for all forms of astrophotography, from panoramas with wide-angle lenses to deep-sky close-ups through a telescope. Alan Dyer from SkyNews compared the three commonly available DSLRs in the market today for astronomical photography - the Canon Digital Rebel XTi (400D), Nikon D80, and Pentax K10D. Here’s the conclusion:
“At the end of the testing, Canon emerged victorious. Its low noise and lack of other artifacts make it the most suitable for long exposures. Nevertheless, the Nikon and Pentax put up a good fight. Both produce fine results at ISO 400 and 800 settings if exposures are kept short. If you’re looking for a camera that’s compatible with existing hardware and planning to use it for only casual short-exposure astrophotography, the Pentax K10D and Nikon D80 will work very well.
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 Pentax K10D was selected as the winner of the Camera Grand Prix 2007 award in Japan. Pentax is celebrating this award by releasing a limited edition Pentax K10D DSLR camera.
The Camera Grand Prix is held annually under the sponsorship of the Camera Journal Press Club (CJPC), a group of photography writers from Japan’s 11 leading photo and camera magazines. This is one of the most prestigious camera awards in Japan, as it recognizes what the group sees as the most distinguished of all new still cameras introduced to the Japanese market from April 1 to March 31.
This Limited Edition Pentax K10D has a limited production of 5,000 sets worldwide, which includes:
- PENTAX K10D Camera Body
- PENTAX Battery Grip D-BG2
- Grand Prix Strap O-ST55
Website : Pentax announced Limited Edition K10D
 According to the analysis of user trend in Japan for the most popular camera sales ranking from 5/14 to 5/20. The Panasonic LUMIX DMC-TZ3 took the number one spot for a continuous of 3 weeks. This camera is the latest members of the award-winning Lumix TZ family of digital cameras, which is renowned for packaging a remarkable 10x optical zoom in a compact, stylish body. To further add to their appeal, the TZ3 go one step further to feature a 28mm wide-angle Leica DC lens (equivalent to 28-280mm on a 35mm film camera) for wide-angle shooting.
The Olympus Camedia SP-550UZ camera took the number 2 spot pushing the Canon IXY Digital 900IS down to number 3. The Camedia SP-550UZ is a digital camera with 18X optical zoom (28-504mm equiv.), a 7 Megapixel CCD sensor, 5.6x digital zoom, a 2.5-inch LCD display, ISO up to 5000 and anti-shake protection.
Number 3 is the Canon IXY Digital 900IS, US name of Canon PowerShot SD800 IS Digital ELPH. This camera offers a focal length range of 28 – 105mm (35mm equivalent), and a 3.8x optical zoom lens allows photographers to capture wider panoramas, architectural photos and group shots. The lens incorporates Canon’s optical Image Stabilizer to counteract the effects of camera shake for steadier performance in low light, at full zoom or when shooting from moving vehicles.
The Fuji FinePix F31fd dropped 4 ranking down to the 9th position, and the only DSLR camera that made it to the top 10 is Pentax K10D, at number 10 ranking. Here’s the top 10 ranking between 5/14 - 5/20 in Japan:
- Panasonic LUMIX DMC-TZ3
- Olympus CAMEDIA SP-550UZ
- Canon IXY DIGITAL 900IS
- Olympus μ770SW
- Nikon COOLPIX P5000
- Ricoh R6 DIGITAL
- Kodak EasyShare V705
- Ricoh GR DIGITAL
- Fuji FinePix F31fd
- Pentax K10D
Website : Japan Most Popular Camera Ranking - May 14 to May 20
 NeoCamera did a great comparison between the two camera. The Sony Alpha A100 and the Pentax K10D compete head-to-head with the most similar feature set among 10 megapixels DSLR cameras. These two digital cameras share the same image sensor, built-in stabilization and dust-reduction. Besides the lens mount, the most prominent feature difference is the Pentax K10D’s weather-sealed body. Note that weather-sealing is only truly effective when using weather-sealed lenses. The first two such lenses, the 16-50 F2.8 and the 50-135 F2.8, are expected to ship in May 2007.
The remaining differences between the Alpha A100 and the K10D can be spit into performance features and usability features. Since these camera’s share the same sensor, performance differences were not expected to be significant. Here are the relative advantages of each camera over the other:
Sony Alpha A100:
- Greater sharpness
- Better automatic white-balance
- Superior image stabilization
- Easier to use with gloves
- More usable status screen
- Eye-start sensor efficiently controls status display
- Keyed ISO settings help with high-contrast subjects
- DRO optimizes image tonality directly in-camera
- Wider range of image parameters, although with larger increments
- Customizable EC and AEL behavior
- Eye-start auto focus
- More lenses currently in production
Pentax K10D:
- Lower image noise
- More image details
- Better color accuracy
- White-balance preview
- Greater accessibility of features
- Larger and brighter viewfinder
- Top-mounted status screen
- Unique exposure modes
- Customizable Auto-ISO and Program line
- Finer control of image parameters including white-balance
- Weather sealing with applicable lenses when they become available
- In-camera RAW development
Website : Pentax K10D vs Sony Alpha A100
 PENTAX announced that the PENTAX K10D DSLR camera, first launched in November 2006, was selected as the winner of the Camera Grand Prix 2007 award in Japan. The selection was made because of the K10D’s exceptional image quality and array of advanced features, including the PENTAX-original Shake Reduction system.
The Camera Grand Prix is held annually under the sponsorship of the Camera Journal Press Club (CJPC), a group of photography writers from Japan’s 11 leading photo and camera magazines. This is one of the most prestigious camera awards in Japan, as it recognizes what the group sees as the most distinguished of all new still cameras introduced to the Japanese market from April 1 to March 31.
The panel particularly praised its compatibility with existing lenses: “By assuring compatibility with a wide selection of existing lenses, the K10D extends tremendous versatility and unique benefits to its users, and makes digital photography more fun and exciting from the photographer’s point of view. In all, the K10D must be seen as a complete and remarkable camera system.”
Website : Pentax K10D Won “Camera Grand Prix 2007” in Japan
Version 1.2 of the K10D’s firmware adds support for the new Pentax Remote Assistant 3 software, which allows photographers to control one or more cameras from a USB-connected computer. Remote Assistant 3 provides timer, bulb and interval-shooting options in addition to real-time control.Pentax has also updated its Photo Browser 3 and Photo Laboratory 3 desktop software. Photo Browser 3.11 provides integration with Remote Assistant versions 1 and 3, and supports data from the Pentax DA* 16mm-50mm f/2.8 and DA* 50mm-135mm f/2.8 lenses. Photo Laboratory 3.10 adds native support for Intel Macs and improved white balance adjustments.
In addition, the company has released a RAW codec for 32-bit versions of the Windows Vista operating system, which allow Vista’s Photo Gallery to open RAW files from the following Pentax cameras: K10D, K100D, K110D, *istDS, *istDS2, *istDL, *istDL2, *istD.
Website : Pentax Upgrades SLR Firmware and Software
The Pentax K10D is based around an APS-C sized CCD imager with an effective resolution of 10.2 megapixels. It uses a 22-bit Analog-to-digital converter, and a new processing engine dubbed “PRIME” (Pentax Real IMage Engine). The K10D has a dust-proof, weather resistant body with a stainless steel chassis and some 72 seals that allow the camera to be used in dusty and/or rainy environments. The sensor sits on a free-floating electromagnetically controlled platter that can move horizontally, vertically, and even rotationally. Here’s a brief look at how it compares against the nearest competition from the Camera Labs:
Nikon D80 - “Arguably the biggest rival for the K10D is the Nikon D80. At first glance the K10D appears to thrash it in terms of features including built-in image stabilisation, dust removal, environmental sealing and impressive RAW capabilities; the K10D’s also cheaper. But in our view, the D80 simply out-performs the K10D in day-to-day use. We shot with a D80 throughout the entire period of this review and saw first-hand how it handled exactly the same situations as the K10D. There were many occasions when the K10D required exposure compensation, while the more sophisticated metering of the D80 remained un-phased. We also preferred the output from the D80 using the default settings, although to be fair this is subjective. See our Nikon D80 review and video tour for more details.”
Canon EOS 30D - “Canon’s mid-range DSLR is an interesting rival for the K10D, and like the D80, it initially appears to come-off badly in terms of features. The K10D boasts slightly higher resolution, built-in anti-shake and anti-dust, environmental sealing, the chance to swap focusing screens and impressive RAW capabilities. Look a little deeper though and the 30D has several aspects in its favour including a magnesium alloy body, 5fps continuous shooting, superior metering and again more consumer-friendly output using the default settings. That said the K10D’s cheaper than the Canon 30D, so unless you need 5fps and aren’t willing to tweak image settings, the K10D represents much better value. See our Canon EOS 30D review for more details.”
Sony Alpha A100 - “The Sony Alpha A100 is a natural rival for the K10D as both are 10 megapixel DSLRs featuring in-camera stabilisation which also doubles-up for anti-dust duties. In practice we found the Sony A100’s Super SteadyShot proved slightly more effective than the K10D’s Shake Reduction, although neither were as effective as lens-based solutions at longer focal lengths. In its favour, the K10D’s anti-dust was more effective in our tests and while its default output wasn’t as punchy as the A100, it did boast lower noise levels at higher sensitivities. The A100 may be cheaper than the K10D, but if you’re willing to learn how to tweak the settings, it’s worth spending the extra on the Pentax. See our Sony Alpha A100 review for more details.”
Website : Pentax K10D compared with Nikon D80, Canon 30D, Sony A100
Pentax K10D is Digital SLR camera, announced September 13, 2006, is featuring 10.2 effective megapixels, CCD-shift type Shake Reduction, a new Dust Removal (DR) system incorporating PENTAX-original Special Protect (SP) coating to help keep the CCD surface dust-free, and a shift mechanism to shake dust off the CCD. The Pentax K10D the first Water-Resistant Digital SLR featuring 72 seals throughout the camera to allow photographers to continue shooting even in rainy environments. Pentax K10D is available in US for $899.95 (body only).
Here’s a conclusion from the review at PhotographyBlog: “The Pentax K10D is an excellent mid-range digital SLR camera that manages to achieve the difficult task of being intuitive to use whilst offering a lot of complex functionality. Pentax have included a number of genuinely useful innovations that help to make the K10D stand out from the crowd. The various new shooting modes, dust and water-resistance, anti-shake and dust-removal systems are all extremely welcome at this price-point, and there are many more nice touches too numerous to mention.
The K10D will more than satisfy all those people who are keen to upgrade from a film-based Pentax system, providing more features and capability than the entry-level models that the company has previously released. You should also seriously consider this camera if you don’t currently have any vested interest in the likes of Canon or Nikon, as it offers more bang for your buck than similarly priced models. Indeed, the Pentax K10D offers a wealth of features, ease of use, speedy operation and excellent image quality at a very competitive price.
The main negative aspects of the Pentax K10D are the supplied 18-55mm kit lens, which feels cheap and ill-matched to the K10D body, the noisy shutter release mechanism and auto-focusing system, and the lack of dedicated buttons for ISO and white balance. Overall we can highly recommend the Pentax K10D - not only does it have an attractive price-tag, but it is also a solidly-built, intuitive and responsive digital SLR that will meet the needs of the serious photographer.”
Website : Pentax K10D – Review at PhotographyBlog
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