Feature 3

As with all modern DSLRs there’s the usual choice of leaving the decision over the point of focus to the camera or manually intervening and selecting a single AF point yourself. There’s also the compulsory single shot and continuous AF options, with a continuous drive mode delivering up to nine Raw frames in a burst, or up to the capacity of your memory card if you record JPEGs – assuming your card can match the speed of the camera, that is.

For flash users things are a little less rosy, with the built-in flash delivering a weaker-than-most output with its guide number of 11 (GN11m@ISO100) and the 1/180sec sync speed failing to set hearts racing. There is a hotshoe when you need more flash power, but one of the more disappointing facts is that neither model has a PC sync socket for plugging in studio flash units. It may sound like we’re asking a lot seeing as no camera at this price point has one, but given the otherwise ‘pro’ spec of the cameras it seems like an obvious way of making these particular models appeal to studio photographers, especially in the portrait environment.

However, there really are very few gripes overall as there’s little that these cameras seem to lack and plenty of innovations they offer over their rivals. At the same time, there’s also very little to separate the K10D from the GX10 in terms of specification – a second Raw mode on the Pentax seems such a minor point that it’s largely irrelevant.