Underexposed

LAS VEGAS--Lenses are as important as camera bodies in the SLR market, and Pentax is trying to keep its customers' appetites whetted by showing off three new lenses still under development at the Photo Marketing Association trade show here.

First up is the smc Pentax-DA*55mm F1.4 SDM, a model with a 55mm fixed focal length and wide f/1.4 aperture for low-light shooting or pictures with soft, undistracting backgrounds. Availability is undetermined so far.

Next is the smc Pentax-DA*60-250mm F4ED SDM, a wide-range telephoto zoom that should be available in the summer.

Third is the smc Pentax-DA17-70 F4 AL SDM. This moderate zoom also should be available in the summer, Pentax said.

These three models aren't yet available and shouldn't be confused with the five lenses for which Pentax last week announced prices and availability dates.

The names are all tentative, the company cautioned. If you want to decode them, here's a handy Pentax lens terminology cheat sheet I cribbed from my colleague Lori Grunin:

• AL = Aspherical Lens

• DA = designed for digital (not full frame) cameras

• DA* = DA with dust- and weather-sealing

• ED = Extra low Dispersion

• IF = Internal Focus

• SDM = Supersonic Drive Motor

Pentax's K20D is the company's new top-end SLR.

(Credit: Pentax)

LAS VEGAS--Pentax just announced its new flagship SLR camera, the K20D, but the Japanese company has plans on the drawing board for a higher-end class of camera in 2009.

On the Pentax roadmap for 2009, the SLR quality arrow jumps up "much higher" above the K20D--a bigger step up than the one from the K10D to the K20D--said John Carlson, Pentax's product manager for imaging systems.

"That would be a new category" of SLR for Pentax, he said, but was mum on further details.

Obviously, that statement leaves a lot of room for maneuvering and interpretation, but it's still a notable reflection of the company's ambitions. Pentax also must reckon with some powerful competitors with high-end models--not just market leaders Canon and Nikon, but also well-funded newcomers such as Sony, which plans to release a professional-grade SLR this year.

Pentax announced its K20D last week and is showing it off this week at the Photo Marketing Association trade show here. The 14.6-megapixel model includes features such as 11-point autofocus, sensor-shift image stabilization, ISO up to 6,400, and seals to keep out dust and water.

SLR (single-lens reflex) cameras offer higher image quality and interchangeable lenses, but they're more expensive and bulkier. SLR sales are growing faster than the overall digital camera market, so it's no surprise camera makers are fighting for dominance--especially because the market is in flux.

Pentax, like Canon, Nikon, Fujifilm, and Olympus, is a traditional camera maker facing new competition from consumer-electronics powers such as Sony and Panasonic. Sony got a leg up in the SLR market by acquiring the assets of Konica Minolta, and Panasonic has a partnership with Olympus and Leica. Another electronics giant now selling SLRs, Samsung, bases its products on Pentax cameras.

One way Pentax could head toward higher-end SLRs would be to follow Canon and Nikon with models whose image sensor is the size of a full frame of 35mm film. Most digital SLRs, including all of Pentax's, employ a smaller "APS-C"-sized sensors that are cheaper to make. Larger sensors offer the promise of greater sensitivity because pixels are larger, and for 35mm film buffs, lenses give the same field of view as they did with film.

But don't expect a full-frame Pentax, at least for the time being, Carlson said. Asked whether it was in the plans, he said, "At this point I would say no. The lenses are designed for the APS-C format," Carlson said. However, he qualified his remarks with a disclaimer: "What will happen in two years? Who knows."

One interesting feature in Pentax SLRs is support for the Digital Negative (DNG) raw-image format, which is Adobe Systems' attempt to curtail the cacophony of proprietary raw image formats. Raw images provide more quality but require manual processing into something handy such as JPEG, and different SLR models typically have their own proprietary formats today.

Pentax is probably the most notable DNG adopter, though others include Ricoh and now Epson with its super-high-speed camera. However, DNG still plays second fiddle among Pentax photographers to the older PEF format, Carlson said. "Most people are shooting PEF," he said.

• VueScan Scanning Software - Software for getting more out of your scanner, including high bit depth DNG images. A useful thing if you want to use your scanner as a camera.
• Naked Light 1.0 beta due this week - The programmer behind this Mac-only image-editing application seems a little taxed, but he says the 1.0 beta will ship this week. He's on a leave of absense to write it now, though.
• YouTube - Pentax K20D - A useful video intro to the Pentax K20D from Pentax. I wish my camera had a built-in intervalometer.
• YouTube - Pentax K200D intro - A useful summary from Pentax of the features of the new K200D.
• Camera Lens Rentals - Online Lens Rentals for Canon Cameras - Another online lens rental outfit springs up. For example, $87 for two weeks with Canon's 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM or $20 for a week with the 1.4X or 2.0X extenders. Canon lenses only at this point. Another threat to higher-end local camera retailers.
• Nikon D300 False Low-Battery Warnings=Worthless DSLR - Notebooks.com - A Nikon D300 owner unsatisfied with the camera's quality. Bogus low-battery warnings, plus mysterious intermittent dark frames. Store exchanged it for a new one with no hassle, but the writer says, "It's time Nikon recognizes this as a serious quality control issue."
• Hands On: Zeiss ZF Macros for Nikon - PopPhoto - Warm words for two manual-focus f/2 macros from Zeiss, 50mm and 100mm.
• Canon Powershot G9 Review - Luminous Landscape - For when you have to travel, it's pretty good. "The only great camera is the camera that's there with you when the light happens." It won out over the guy's Leica M8, which is saying something, but it's not quite a "keeper."
• A custom grip for the Canon PowerShot G9 - This grip sticks on with an adhesive strip. Interesting.
• Lensmate - lens adapter accessory for Canon PowerShot G9/G7 - More aftermarket goodness for Canon PowerShot G9 owners. This lets you attach various lenses to the high-end compacts.
• Samsung GX-20 brief hands-on: Digital Photography Review - A quick look at the Samsung GX-20, which with some minor variations is a Pentax K20D.
• Guess the Title: A multi-player Flickr photo guessing game - This is amusing. Makes me feel bad about some of my lousy photo captions. _IMG-0123.
• Super Techies: Video interview of Brendan Eich on ZDNet.com - JavaScript creator speaks out on history. Bill Joy at Sun Microsystems "got it" that there should be a programming language for the masses, as opposed to the high-end Java, thus the "marketing scam" name of JavaScript. Interesting history from the Mozilla CTO.
• What's a better name for Fedora 9, Bathysphere or Chupacabra? - Voting on names is about as superficial as it gets, but what the heck, it's fun. I'd go for "Chupacabra" because a friend of mine thinks New Mexico is teeming with them.
• Xen 3.2.0 released--significant new features - Among the updates: PCI pass-through for better performance, Xen security modules, suspend to RAM, support for more bootloaders (probably important for getting along well with Windows, Mac OS X, and other operating systems).
• Andy Rouse Review - Nikon D3 - A Canon shooter likes the D3 for wildlife photography.
• Agence France-Presse to leave Canon, buy Nikon - It's supposedly moving to Nikon D3 SLRs. Interesting, though I couldn't find confirmation after a quick search.
• Luminous Landscape's Olympus E-3 Review - Generally favorable review by Douglas Brown, but: "clumsy, poorly implemented physical interface."
• Baltimore winter photo gallery - I know, I'm biased, but I just like photojournalism better than most photography. I used to shoot wild art for a newspaper occasionally, and I loved it.

Update 8:12 a.m. PST: We added Fujifilm to the poll.

Canon and Nikon dominate the SLR camera business, but if you're entering the market or buying a new camera, it would behoove you to look at other options, too.

One interesting question, though, is who's got the best alternatives today. It's a relevant question for someone buying a first SLR or deciding whether to stick with an existing brand or change. From another perspective, who should Nikon and Canon be fretting about most among competitors?

I'd love to see your vote and hear your likes and dislikes, and other thoughts in the Talkback section below.

There are two broad classes of alternatives. First, the companies that already have an established presence in the camera market: Fujifilm, Leica, Olympus, Pentax, and Sigma. Second are the newcomers from the consumer electronics realm: Panasonic, Samsung, and Sony.

There are some alliances here that make that rough division more complicated than might appear at first blush. First, Sony's SLR effort is built on the assets it acquired from Konica-Minolta, a longtime SLR maker. Second, Samsung's SLRs at present are basically rebadged Pentax models with some minor differences, such as a blue ring around the lenses rather than a green one. Third, Panasonic has a technology partnership with Leica, and both those makers' lenses use the Four Thirds system that Olympus founded when it introduced digital SLRs.

Those partnerships all are important not just because the newcomers can get a technological boost, but also because it means buyers have a wider choice of lenses. A lot of people never buy any lens besides the basic "kit" lens that came with the camera. But for those who want to grow, it's good to have a bunch of telephotos, wide angles, fixed-focal length primes, macros, and fisheyes to choose from.

I'm not sure if this is a coincidence, but one thing that unites all those chasing Nikon and Canon is the decision to build image stabilization into the camera body rather than into the lens. With that approach, the image sensor shifts side to side and sometimes rotationally to compensate for the photographer's shaky hands. It also means that image stabilization works with older lenses and doesn't have to be built into new ones. On the flip side, Nikon and Canon argue for putting image stabilization into the lens, which they argue produces better results.

Another big difference is that only Nikon and Canon so far have models with full-frame image sensors.

If you're wedded to the big two, you might be curious to know how users voted earlier this month in our Canon vs. Nikon SLR poll: Nikon beat Canon with 55 percent of more than 11,000 voters. (Yes, we do employ measures to prevent people from voting multiple times.)

But for those evaluating the alternatives, here are some other tidbits to consider.

• The Four Thirds allies have the benefit of a clean break from the film past, with all-new lenses designed for the sensors that are smaller than a full frame of 35mm film. That means they could design lenses that are smaller and cheaper than those who have to worry about supporting older film cameras or who are planning on offering full-frame models in the future. And it means customers can intermix nice lenses from one company with cameras from another, a nice break from the usual SLR lens incompatibility barriers.

• Images from Four Thirds cameras have an aspect ratio of 4:3 (surprise!), the squarish proportions used in standard-definition TVs. But 35mm film cameras, as well as the digital SLRs from Pentax, Samsung, Sony, and Sigma, use a more 3:2 ratio. Personally, I prefer the latter, since it permits more dramatic vertical or horizontal orientations. And bear in mind that HDTV uses an even wider 16:9 ratio.

• Fujifilm uses the same camera bodies as Nikon, meaning that the lenses are compatible, but it uses its own sensor design, called SuperCCD. These sensors employ an unconventional pixel layout that in effect devotes two sensor sites to each pixel, expanding the dynamic range of the image at the expense of a lower overall pixel count.

• Sony not only has benefit of its Konica-Minolta history, it also has a lot of in-house manufacturing expertise--notably image sensors. That allows it to control more of its own destiny, plump up profit margins, and tightly integrate components.

• Sigma uses Foveon's unusual image sensor in its SD14 digital SLR. Most image sensors have a checkerboard pattern of red, green, and blue pixels; the camera processes the data to produce red, green, and blue values for each pixel after the fact. In contrast, Foveon's sensor captures red, green, and blue data for each pixel. In theory that could mean images with finer detail and fewer pesky artifacts, but in practice it's hard to overlook the conspicuous absence so far of Foveon chips elsewhere in the industry.

• Panasonic and Sony have released only two SLRs each so far, one in 2006 and one in 2007, but bet on them to flesh out their product lines to reach a broader market. Sony in particular has promised a new professional-grade model--an ambitious move--but the company already has released a sizable number of new lenses.

• Olympus and Pentax may not have the professional-market clout of Canon and Nikon, but they're trying hard to appeal to higher-end users. Olympus' new, top-end E-3 and Pentax's flagship K10D both are designed to resist water and dust, for example.

Pentax's current K10D

(Credit: CNET Networks)

The latest rumor has it that Pentax plans to announce two new SLR models, the K20D and K200D, on January 24, a week before the Photo Marketing Association trade show that begins.

A now-defunct discussion thread on a Chinese Web site, helpfully archived at DCHome.net and supplemented by postings at Bigbigcar.com and PhotoMalaysia forums, includes a few supposed details about models that would presumably replace the K10D and K100D:

The alleged K20D has a 14-megapixel sensor of the smaller APS-C size, a 14-bit analog-to-digital converter (for better tonal gradations than typical 12-bit converters but leading to larger raw files), a live-view LCD, the same weather resistance as the K10D, and better sensor-shift shake reduction. The lower-end K200D is supposed to have a 10-megapixel sensor and a bigger memory buffer for longer stretches of continuous shooting.

Also a possibility are three new lenses, all appearing on a Pentax road map document (click for PDF): a 60-250mm f/4 to be announced in December and a 200mm f/2.8 and a 300mm f/4 to be announced with the cameras in January.

Rumors, some appearing derivative, also cropped up at DPReview and PentaxForums.

(Via Photography Bay.)