Pentax opted for a pentaprism, rather than a cheaper mirror system. Prisms stay aligned better and longer than mirrors and according to Pentax marketing materials, account for the viewfinder's 0.95 magnification – a statistic that helps focusing and composition – the view is larger than on many other cameras. Pentax says it shows 95 percent of the actual image. There is a diopter adjustment for the viewfinder.

 

Without a memory card in the camera, it wasn't clear what information is displayed in the viewfinder, because some features of the K10D are defeated when the SD slot is empty. It's clear, though, that the viewfinder shows exposure data and focus confirmation, and a flash ready light. All of the information is easy to see, along with the image, even for users who wear glasses.

 

The 2.5-inch, 210,000-pixel LCD allows close inspection of focus, and has pleasing color, but a relatively narrow angle of view. Menus and text data are crisp and easy to read. Because we inspected the Pentax K10D at a trade show booth, we weren't able to make a full evaluation. Look for our full review to learn how it performs in bright light, how accurately it handles color, refreshes, and so on.

 

The monochrome LCD on top of the K10D is sharp and contrasty, and large. Again, we couldn't see everything it could do – it clearly shows shooting information including current aperture and shutter speed, exposure compensation flash compensation, burst mode, battery condition and has the frame counter, but without a memory card, the camera wouldn't fully function.

 

The Pentax K10D's popup flash is a small rectangle. Such a small light source casts harsh shadows, and users who rely on flash should get a more power external flash that can be bounce or diffused. Pentax reports a guide number of 15.6 at ISO 200. With a maximum shutter speed sync of 1/180, the popup won't do much for outdoor fill flash, but it could save the day in other circumstances.

 

The popup mechanism seems robust enough – the whole arched cowling comes up, rather than just a pair of arms.

 

Sync modes include auto, forced on, off, red-eye reduction, slow, second-curtain slow, and red-eye reduction slow. Flash exposure can be compensated from 1 stop over to 2 stops below metered exposure. The K10D has a hot shoe for dedicated Pentax flashes, but no PC terminal.

The Pentax K10D will be marketed in a kit with the Pentax 18-55mm f/3.5 to 5.6, or the 16-45mm f/4. The 16-45 will add a couple hundred Euros to the price, but seems like a superior lens. Mechanically, it feels better, and its wider aperture at telephoto makes it a more versatile optic. We were not in a position to compare the lenses' performance, though we will in our full review in the coming months. For that matter, Pentax has a prototype of an f/2.8 lens in a similar zoom range.

 

We typically talk about image stabilization in the lens sections of our reviews, because stabilization has most often been introduced with moving optical elements in the lens. That's not the case with the Pentax K10D, which manages “shake reduction” by moving the sensor. The upside is that stabilization happens no matter what lens is mounted on the camera.

 

The Pentax K10D offers at least some level of function with legacy lenses back to manual-focus K-mount optics, including a means of inputting an old lens's focal length to influence the anti-shake system.