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Picture Quality / Size Options (8.5)
The Pentax K100D is a 6-megapixel camera. Its RAW files are 3008 x 2008 pixels, and it can record JPEGs at full resolution, 2400x1600 and 1536x1024 pixels. It offers three JPEG compression settings, indicated by 3, 2 or 1 star. 3-star images are suitable for printing, 2-star images are for on-screen uses, and 1-star images are small, but have only enough quality for emailing. The lower-quality JPEG settings save space, but for nearly every user, it makes sense to shoot high-quality, and compress the images later, if needed. The K100D's 2- and 1-star images show serious deterioration.
Picture Effects (7.5)
The Pentax K100D offers effects in post-processing rather than during shooting. The effects are called “filters.” The filters include Black and White, Sepia, Soften (which can be set to three different levels), Brightness, Slim, and Color.
Slim distorts the image, either squeezing or stretching it up to twice its original size. It's an odd effect. In Pentax's manual, the example image of a shaggy dog looks peculiar. It would be very strange to use on people. Color tints the image one of nine colors, at two levels of intensity. The colors are: red, orange, yellow, yellow-green, green, cyan, blue, indigo, and purple.
Aside from the dubious appeal of any of the filters except black and white, there is the significant drawback of trying to evaluate them on a camera's LCD display. If image quality is of importance, it would make much more sense to perform adjustments to the image on a computer with a reasonably large monitor. There's no way to predict how a print will turn out by looking at the image on the LCD.
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