Pentax K20D

The Pentax K20D has a sturdy body that is dustproof and weather-resistant with 72 rubber seals placed throughout the camera body. The K20D is made of "reinforced plastic polymer shell surrounding a rugged stainless steel chassis," according to the manufacturer’s specs. It looks like a serious DSLR and feels that way, too, but your opinion might change when you enter the menu system.

The Pentax K20D doesn’t aim to be small and portable at a time when many DSLRs are shrinking to attract the consumer crowd. It measures 5.6 x 4 x 2.76 inches and weighs 25.2 ounces without the battery and memory card. With those items included, the camera weighs 28.2 ounces. The camera I looked at on the PMA show floor was tethered to a counter so I couldn’t get an unrestrained hold of the weight – but it seemed heavy to me.

 

The K20D will require a camera bag to carry it around. The body is big, and carrying around a set of lenses and flash accessories will surely require more than just a purse. And no matter how big your pants are, this won’t fit in your pocket.

 

The Pentax K20D looks and feels like a plush DSLR. It has a large hand grip covered in rubber that is textured to look like leather. Matching the rubber front is a patch on the back where the thumb rests. It is complemented by a lip on the side of the thumb pad that adds some support to keep the camera from slipping and hitting the pavement. The right hand enjoys these comforts while the left hand has a wide base to hold the camera and will likely wrap around the lens barrel to zoom. The handling is overall positive, although the number of on-camera controls and buttons is a bit overwhelming.

 

 

There are so many designated buttons on this DSLR that it takes some getting used to. There are buttons for everything, and many of the buttons can be set to access different functions in the Setup and Custom menus. For instance, there are two exposure adjustment dials – one on the front of the camera and one on the back. In the Custom menu, you can specify which dial changes the shutter speeds and which changes the aperture. This is very cool for picky photographers. The Custom menu is full of gems like this, although the menu is lengthy and verbose. Buttons are properly labeled but placed in so many crevasses. It will take a few shooting sessions with this camera before you can recall the location of the controls. Lots of on-camera buttons translate to less time wasted in the menu system, though.

If you’ve ever seen Pentax Optio digital camera menus, the ones on this DSLR aren’t much different. There is a menu button to the left of the LCD that display the menus, which appear with white text on a black background and have a purple background to show which item is selected. A nice perk is that the selected item also appears a bit larger than the others so it is more differentiated and easier to read.

 

The menu font is readable and typical of Pentax digital camera menus. It is also quite colorful – the background and the icons – and almost looks low-quality because of it. Parts of it look like a cartoon or video game.

 

 

There are four tabs at the top of the menu system that move between the Recording menu to the Playback, Setup, and Custom menus.

 

 

The Custom menu is where you can really personalize your camera in just about every way. Unfortunately it is incredibly verbose and the abundance of text in the 2.7-inch space makes it a pain on the eyes.

 

 

This is insanely long. There are even more options to set the function of the green button, as well as setting the two exposure dials to access the shutter speed aperture or program line in every single exposure mode on the dial. This is an incredible amount of options – but it’ll take as much time to customize this as it does to build your own camera out of scrap metal.

 

The Pentax K20D is not easy to use. It may have two exposure dials, but its menus and other buttons don’t much resemble more common DSLRs from Canon and Nikon. If you’re used to the K10D, though, an upgrade shouldn’t be too difficult because they have the same structure and design. The menus are lengthy and options seem scattered about on button and various menus. To its credit, this camera does have a "green" Auto mode, which fully automates everything and is found on Pentax’s compact Optio line of digital cameras.