| Section |
The Good |
The Bad |
 |
Product Tour |
Compact, nicely constructed body |
Small LCD; AV cable not included |
 |
Color |
Blue, red and magenta reproduced accurately; finely adjustable color modes |
Yellow and orange hues considerably off; mediocre long exposure results |
 |
Noise |
Extended ISO range to 12800; user-selectable level for high ISO noise reduction kick-in |
Image noise higher than most other tested SLRs |
 |
Resolution |
Good results at common shooting settings; wide dynamic range for high-contrast shooting |
Sharpness suffers substantially at small aperture settings |
 |
White Balance |
Fine adjustments easy with on-screen preview |
Unimpressive auto WB, custom white balance not as precise as other SLRs |
 |
Sample Photos |
See sample photos taken with the Pentax K-x under different conditions |
 |
Playback |
Useful variety of playback views; wide-ranging in-camera editing options |
No PictBridge direct printing support |
 |
Hardware |
Decent viewfinder, well designed LCD info display |
Small, 230K-dot LCD; no HD video output |
 |
Controls |
Live View works smoothly, with customizable display; lots of scene modes, custom image shooting options and digital filters |
Live View autofocus slow; can't store customized shooting settings |
 |
Design & Handling |
Secure, maneuverable grip and thumb rest design; well designed menu system; clear user manual with good index, glossary |
Nothing significant |
 |
Conclusion |
Read our final conclusion on the Pentax K-x |
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| |
| Video Section |
The Good |
The Bad |
 |
Video: Color & Noise |
Good saturation levels; numerous color modes can be used with video |
Color accuracy was below average for a video-DSLR. |
|
Video: Motion & Sharpness |
Video was sharper than most DSLRs that record 720p video |
Doesn't shoot Full HD (1920 x 1080); only one frame rate option (24p) |
|
Video: Low Light Performance |
Colors remained vivid and strong in low light. |
Noise levels were high and low light sensitivity wasn't very good. |
|
Video Features |
Fairly compact body; wide range of aperture settings |
No manual ISO or shutter speed options; no continual autofocus; camera doesn't come with AV cable |
| |
 |
The lowest-priced video-enabled SLR by a substantial margin, the $650 Pentax K-x still image and video quality won't impress sophisticated shooters, but consumers will welcome the extensive feature set. Lack of high-def video output, though, is a significant blunder.
Exclusive - Video testing on the Pentax K-x is provided by CamcorderInfo.com, the world leader in camcorder and video reviewing.