Pentax KM + DA Limited lenses
At Photokina, Pentax displayed the new KM digital SLR amateur camera. This is an interesting and compact new body.
It basically has the same specs of the K10, K200 in terms of resolution - 10 Mpix CCD (Sony made?) and a Pentax K bayonet.
Add as a bonus the on-sensor stabilization that helps to gain a couple of stops on any lens.
The processor managed dynamic-range expansion function avoids washed out areas in high contrast scenes and generally a wider range of exposure.
Ok, don't expect a super bright and large viewfinder but certainly a better one than the electronic view finders found in bridge cameras. In this regards, it would be interesting to compare viewfinder performances with the Lumix G1 which sports an HD electronic viewfinder to compensate for doing without a mechanical reflex mechanism and prism. I would suspect that optical reflex will always be better.
You can't use the 2.7-inch LCD monitor to compose because believe it or not there is no live view function.
Using KM with Pentax Limited lenses
The KM will be available in November as a kit only package with a simpler (ie plastic bayonet) version of the 18-55 DA zoom.
The great thing is that you can use the Pentax limited fixed lenses on this camera, although the sensor multiplication factor (x1.5) should be taken into account. So for instance, a 50mm equivalent on KM would be roughly a 33 mm lens. While the 21mm lens becomes a 31mm and so on.
The lenses in this Limited range are all beautifully made (especially the first series), they are auto focus lenses, very compact and reasonably priced for what they offer.
The KM is just perfect with Pentax Limited lenses. You can achieve a compact and high quality kit for a relatively good price. The ideal is a KM with 21mm combo for wide angle street/travel photography, as you end up with slightly less than a 35mm, ok at f3.2 this is no Summilux.
The KM with 40mm f2.8 is also a compact and lightweight combo although as a 60mm equivalent it may be less useful everyday. But the use of K bayonet allows a wide range of possibilities, although I don't know if I would like to mount 645 lenses on it.
Pentax KM with 40mm f2,8 DA Limited SMC FA Limited Lenses
You should note that the existing smc FA limited lenses are in principle not optimized for digital. But given that they are good lenses and the sensor would use only the center of the image, avoiding any light fall off or softness at corners, you may of course use them. The trade-off may be purple fringing. Also, the fact that taking into account sensor multiplication factor you end up with a range of moderate tele lenses (50-65- 115).
On KM 31mm while representing an interesting option, is a bit bulky for what it is (345g) and uses 58mm filters (no problem if you are a Canon user). Also while it has a very nice silver finish, it may not look that good on KM's black body.
The 77mm may also be considered for portraits given its f1.8 aperture although on KM you end up with the equivalent of a 115mm which is in between a 90-105 range for head/shoulder shot and 135mm which is better for head shots. It is compact and lightweight (270g) so maybe you can get closer to your model. Filter is Pentax standard 49mm and it is available in black. Availability of this lens may not be as wide as others.
SMC DA Limited Lenses
Pentax has has issued a new range of Limited lenses for DA that is optimized for digital cameras.
They are on average slightly less bright than the FA series (average 2.8 compared to 1.8 in the previous series). This is a full stop more on average although this may be in part compensated by the KM's shake reduction system in terms of speed but you loose in terms of out of focus (bokeh) areas (which is also diminished by the digital sensor crop factor.) So for portraits with beautiful out of focus backgrounds you have to look somewhere else. On the other side if hyper focal is what you need this may be the good combination.
At Photokina, Pentax had also two other lenses from the Limited range on display: a 15mm f4 DA Limited and a 35mm Macro lens which is new and should be already available.
Pentax KM + DA Limited lenses clockwise from top 21/3.2; 35/2.8 macro; 70/2.4; 21/3.2
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