High Dynamic Range in Camera
I sometimes spend a few hours a day looking up new products and cameras to feature here on Lenshare. Not a lot of what I find ends up here. However, when I came across this find, I just knew it was something perfect and very much relevant to a few things I have been working on. It also falls into a category of a product that I think is on the verge of changing cameras forever.Introducing the Pentax K20D. As of October 12th, the price dropped down to $1000.00 for the body.
Now, I know this is not a Nikon based product like you are used to hearing me brag about. But, the reason I am discussing this camera is because when I first came across this camera a few days ago it was in a magazine. I looked quickly through the review. Unimpressed, I moved forward, flipping through the pages. What caught my eye and made me go back was the seemingly new piece of vital software that this camera keeps locked and hidden away within its water resistant body. I came across 4 images that the camera had shot. All four were of the same composition. Each one different that the next. What I came to realize and then read, was that this camera is able to produce a Higher or Enhanced ( as Pentax puts it ) Dynamic Range within its body. You can post-process the photograph to achieve more contrast and detail in brighter conditions/settings. One review that I read says that the "enhanced dynamic range" can produce up to 200% more dynamic range.This is the first camera that I have seen that can post-process and image in camera using this technology. I am anticipating and predicting that cameras will soon be shooting in much greater dynamic ranges than they are capable of now. I feel that they way HDR is being projected we will see cameras that can produce HDR images without and post-processing, and even be able to produce photographs using Tone Mapping all while doing so in camera. I look forward to a camera that can utilize technology of this magnitude. I really do hope it is a Nikon camera though.
Pentax K20D
14.6 Megapixels
Noise-reduction technology
Live view capable (see the image on the LCD screen as you're shooting)
And a few other useful things. This camera has been compared to the D300 and the 40D yet its features lack in certain areas such as High ISO. The D300 out beats the K20D.
Enhanced Dynamic Range abilities
3 comments:
We're Pentax people over at Modern-Guilt :)
Rather, G is, I can't claim to have anything to do with that :P
But nonetheless!
I just upgraded from my *IST DS2 to a K200D and I am extremely happy with it. The thing I absolutely LOVE about Pentax cameras is that they will take ANY Pentax lens made ever. Most of the photos on my site were taken with vintage 28mm and 50mm pentax film lenses that I picked up at flea markets for under $30!
With the way the camera companies are pumping out cameras over the past year, when I come across a camera like the K20D I think of it as an under-dog about to make some headlines. Nikon is similar to the Pentax camera when it comes to lenses. I can take older Nikon lenses or lenses that will fit a Nikon and attach them to my Nikon D-SLR. Let me know how the camera works out for you. I may purchase a Pentax after the New Year.
Jeff
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