Pentax K2000 Digital Camera Review

Pentax K2000

Digital Camera Review

Sep 25, 2008 - By Tim Barribeau
4.3 The Pentax K2000 (dubbed the K-M outside of the USA) joins the already saturated entry-level SLR market. The K2000 distinguishes itself by providing a generous amount of help to new users; a simple and clear control system; and a bevy of image presets and filters. Pentax has also included an external flash unit to the body-and-lens kit, providing more bang for your 700 bucks. In our brief stint using a pre-release version of the camera at the Photokina show, the focus felt very fast, and the camera was light without feeling fragile. The K2000 kit will debut in November 2008 for $699.99 with a DA L 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 AL lens and AF200FG flash. The body  will be released separately in early 2009 for an unannounced price.
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Pentax K2000

The Pentax K2000 looks very similar to the majority of entry level SLRs. It has the typical, medium-size body, single control dial and simple user interface. The case is primarily black plastic, with a silver accent running horizontally near the top of the camera. The buttons felt robust enough to handle substantial use, and the camera was light enough to handle easily, but not so light as to feel fragile.


Front
The front of the K2000 is relatively bare. The grip on the far left is made of rubberized plastic, with a significant depression as a finger rest. About half way up the grip is an infrared receiver for use with compatible remotes. The lens release is on the bottom left of the mount, and the auto focus/manual focus switch is at about 4 o'clock from the lens, on the body. There is a thin silver line that runs around the top of the camera at the point where the sides start to curve in towards the top.


A thin silver line provides a design accent.

Back
The rear of the camera has a simple, but effective, layout. The left side is primarily taken up by the 2.7-inch, 230,000-pixel LCD, with the flash deploy button above and to the left. On top of the screen is the viewfinder, which is protected by a rubber eyecup. Unusually, the diopter adjuster above the eyecup is a slider rather than a dial.

Directly to the right of the viewfinder is the control dial. We found the dial position a little bit far left, and so slightly awkward to reach. Beneath the control dial is a column of four buttons. From the top, they are Playback, Info, Menu and Delete. This last one has a small nubbin, to help you identify it, and hopefully prevent you from accidentally deleting something important. The four-way control pad is placed quite far down on the body. During shooting, the Up button controls drive/timer mode, Left is white balance, Down is flash control, and Right is ISO adjustment. Above the four-way pad is an LED, which glows when the camera is processing information to the card. The thumb pad area is not textured, but has a small lip on the right side to help with stability. The final button on the camera's rear is the auto focus point adjuster, located at the very top right corner. The silver highlight from the front of the camera does reach around the back, but just barely.

 


Large buttons and a simple interface are a boon for learners

Sides
The left side of the K2000 is almost completely bare, with the neck strap eyelet at the top, and the USB/AV out port half way up, protected by a rubber cap. The right side is likewise simple, with only the memory card cover, eyelet, hand grip, and a small rubber outlet for the optional AC adapter cable to snake out.


The auto focus motor is housed in the body, saving money on lenses
and increasing compatibility


The right side has a rubber grip

Top
Once again, the K2000 demonstrates its highly functional, but minimalist, aesthetic. The flash and industry standard hot shoe are both aligned with the lens. To their right is the large mode dial, which has settings for Manual, Av (aperture priority), Tv (shutter priority), Sv (ISO priority), P (program), Scene, Auto Picture, Portrait, Landscape, Macro, Sport, Night Portrait and No Flash. There are two buttons on the grip, Exposure Compensation and a dedicated Help function. Between them is the power light. Finally at the tip of the grip is the on/off dial, and the shutter control.



The mode dial offers more choices than normally seen

Bottom
The bottom of the camera is nondescript. Beneath the grip is the cover for the battery bay, which takes 4 AAs. The tripod mount is metal lens centered, but doesn't have any surface texture to aid with grip when the camera is tripod-mounted.



The camera bottom is relatively plain

 
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