First Impressions ::
The test camera wasn’t a nice red one as I’d imagined (yes, it comes in white and navy blue as well), but a dull black unit. The K-x is a fraction bigger than my old Nikon D40, which I’ll use as a benchmark since it was entry-level DSLR champ 3 years ago. The Pentax is a bit heavier with 4 standard NMH rechargeable batteries in its handgrip. The second dull note comes from the ordinary viewfinder and the vital shooting data on the bottom row, which is hard to read in bright light. By contrast, the screen on the back is bright and the info pretty clear. The autofocus is snappy if noisy, and response to the trigger is immediate. No complaints about the handling.
Take some test shots in the evening light, I struck another dull note as Aperture Priority mode seemed to worked to a dark priority of its own. Switching to manual turned off auto ISO, which I didn’t realise at the time, so I still wasn’t hearing music. I couldn’t read the tiny exposure number in the viewfinder either and ended up using the shoot-and-check-the-screen method.
At home in front of my PC, I discovered that the standard USB cable I use for my Nikon and Canon cameras didn’t fit the Pentax – a real discord as I’d lent my SD-to USB-gizmo to a friend and had no way to pull any photos out of this camera. [read]
