Pros
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Small and compact, stabilisation, autofocus, in-camera editing options, noise control, build quality, lens options
Cons
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Underexposes the images, limited burst capacity, ugly menu, no simultaneous RAW+JPEG, overly menu-reliant, price
Performance
The first thing to point out is the camera’s robustness. The camera survived a drop of about three feet to a concrete floor quite easily. This isn’t a standard procedure of WDC’s tests obviously, but accidents happen.
The AF is much improved over the *ist series. It’s more responsive and locks onto the subject quickly. Similarly, the shake reduction works quite well, but the Sony system probably has the edge at present. The K100D starts quickly, being ready to shoot in a second or so. In high speed mode though, the camera only manages a few seconds at full burst before slowing down to 1fps, which is disappointing, especially when the competition (such as the D70s or Canon 350D) do so much better. Pentax needs to improve the processing speed and up the buffer to fix this.