Pentax K200D Review

Features
The K200D’s mode dial includes the usual suspects: aperture priority, shutter priority, and manual exposure, as well as program, bulb, and scene modes like Portrait, Sports and Flower. Each time you turn the mode dial, a small sample image shows up on the LCD monitor. For example, the “Moving Objects” mode displays a picture of some track athletes (below left). If you hit the INFO button and scroll down, the LCD displays a message explaining that the Moving Objects mode is for taking pictures of fast-moving objects.

Exposure mode preview & The exclusive Pentax Green Button

Pentax’s exclusive Green button (above right) is useful when you want to adjust exposure settings in modes like Tv, Av and Program. When you’re in manual exposure mode (M), pressing the Green button gives you an instant automatic exposure setting (adjusts both aperture and shutter speed for optimal exposure). It’s almost like an “easy button” or a panic button if you can’t figure out the exposure. In Av, if you changed the exposure compensation and want an easy way to get it back, hit the exposure compensation button and the Green button at the same time to reset it to zero. The Green button does the same thing for flash exposure compensation. It can also be customized for manual exposure mode. There are four options. The default is for the Green button to adjust both the shutter speed and aperture. It can also be programmed to automatically adjust the shutter speed to match your chosen aperture, set the aperture to match your chosen shutter speed, or it can also be completely disabled.

The K200D offers an exposure mode I haven’t seen before called Sensitivity Priority (Sv). The Sv mode allows you to change the ISO on the fly while the camera picks the appropriate aperture and shutter speed. The camera also offers an interesting focus option called Catch-in focus. The Catch-in focus mode is set in the Custom Setting menu and will only work with manual focus lenses or lenses that have a switch for manual focus. It allows you to preset the focus and the camera will take the picture only when your subject comes into focus.

Originally, camera makers built image stabilization systems into the lens. But the Pentax K200D’s Shake Reduction image stabilization is built into the camera instead. Unlike optical systems, which move lens elements to compensate for camera shake, the K200D moves the actual imaging sensor. The benefits of the in-camera image stabilization are you don’t need to buy special image-stabilized lenses, lenses can be smaller and lighter, and it probably keeps the cost of lenses down as well. There’s a dedicated Shake Reduction switch on the back of the camera so it can easily be turned off if you’re using a tripod.

The INFO button to the left of the LCD displays an amazing amount of information — 31 items, to be exact (see “INFO” screen under “Camera Menus,” below). The battery indicator is one of the more important ones. INFO also shows the current ISO, any saturation or filter effects that have been applied, and white balance, among others.

Pentax K200D pop-up flash and flash UP button

The K200D has a built-in flash that pops up with the touch of a dedicated button on the back left of the camera. It also has the option of doing wireless TTL flash with selected Pentax hot shoe flashes.

For those of you that like to shoot RAW – and we encourage everyone to shoot RAW – you can either set the camera to shoot RAW all the time in the menu or push a handy button on the left side of the body to get both RAW and JPEG image files. The K200D has two RAW options. You can set it for the native Pentax PEF or Adobe’s public DNG RAW format.

Camera Menus

Pentax K200D during capture w. histogram on		Pentax K200D Playback w. info on
Pentax K200D main menu		Pentax K200D Fn button menu
Pentax K200D Custom Image menu		Pentax K200D INFO display

Design
Even though it’s plasticky, the Pentax K200D feels solid and well built. It’s also dust and weather resistant. It was a bit small in my mid-sized hands but reminds me a lot of the Canon EOS 40D in build and size. The battery and memory card door feel very solid; both are in the usual spots and spring to action without much effort, then click nicely back into place. The built-in pop-up flash (see photos in Features section, above) has a dedicated button on the left rear of the camera, right below the mode dial. And of course, K200D’s large 2.7-inch LCD screen is also on the rear of the camera.

Pentax K200D: Top controls, LCD, and rear button layout

The K200D has a total of 19 buttons and dials – not too bad. The buttons and dials are in the appropriate places, well marked, and easy to manipulate. Depending on your chosen exposure mode, the “e-dial” controls exposure compensation, shutter speed, and aperture. In manual mode the e-dial changes the shutter speed. Holding down the Av button allows the e-dial to adjust the aperture. The very important Function (Fn) button is easily accessible, on the rear of the camera, just below the four-way controller. It offers quick, one button access to key controls: white balance, ISO, flash control, Custom Image, and drive mode.

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