Tech Blog

[#1]

OK, it may not open a bottle of wine for you or unscrew something, but other than that the Pentax K-x has a lot going for it. The camera is aggressively priced when comparing its features list with fellow entry-level cameras, such as the Canon T1i and Nikon D5000. Between you and me, summarizing the K-x review was actually a bit though. The camera just has soooo many features that making sense of them all took a little longer than usual.

So what does the Pentax K-x have to offer?

Solid hunk of steel

According to the Pentax website, the camera is "fibre reinforced plastic polymer covers around a rugged stainless steel chassis". Sounds fancy and makes for a very nice body. Comparing it to the outer of my Nikon D700 it actually looks quite similar. Now that's impressive given the significant price difference. Kudos to Pentax.

↑ The solid pentax K-x.

↓ Traditional control lay-out making it easy for pocket camera users to pick up the camera and start shooting.

The controls are traditionally laid out with a four-way controller for drive mode, ISO, flash and whitebalance. Like on other cameras, it makes it very easy to change those core settings. To get to other settings, such as metering and focus point select, you have to press the info button and navigate a small menu.

The top-wheel lets you choose between (semi) manual modes, such as aperture and shutter speed setting, to the more automated modes of "portrait", "macro" and "action". The picture modes even have explanatory images, such as a nice portrait briefly displayed when selecting the "portrait" mode. Very helpful.

Functional, but not sexy

Agree, menus do not necessarily have to be sexy to be functional. But it doesn't hurt if they look good at the same time as working. Just look at Apple. There is almost something 'German' about the Pentax menus. As if "ordnung must sein" took a clear edge over aesthetics, or "it's gotta look good", when the designers put the menus together.  

↑ It works, but it's not pretty

The menus are clearly laid out with four tabs for shooting, playback, setup and custom. There is no scrolling within the menus which makes it easier to get a good overview. One functional grievance I came across is that the menu does not remember where you exit. Say, I am messing around with the digital filters and turn on "toy camera". Cool, I shoot away and get the look I want. I put the camera down for five minutes, a new scene comes up that I do not want to capture with the "toy camera" effect, but when I enter the menu it is 'reset' to the first section in the first tab.

Sigh! Now I have to remember where the digital filter is turned on, navigate to it and then turn it off. On other cameras I have tested, the menu let me enter where I last exited.

Read more in part 2.