After Nikon threw down the gauntlet with the D300/D3 last year, it was exciting to think how other manufacturers would respond. In particular, I was very curious about what companies like Pentax/Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, and Olympus were going to announce in 2008. Could they “keep up” with Nikon’s big splash?

To oversimplify, last year Canon fired a significant volley in the ongoing image quality (IQ) wars with the Canon 1D Mark III’s Highlight Tone Priority and 14-bit processing. (We’re just talking IQ here, not other features.) Nikon came back–and then some–with the D300/D3 combo. You had to wonder what the other companies were cooking up in their respective R&D labs.

Now we know: the 15.1 MP (14.6 effective MP) APS-C sized Samsung CMOS found in the K20D/GX-20, and Sony’s full-frame ambition (see Photo-John’s Sony report).

Cutting to the chase here regarding Pentax/Samsung, I didn’t get my hands on a working production K20D/GX-20, but I did grab a few shots with a GX-20 on display at Samsung’s booth. But more on that in a moment.

What I wanted to hear at PMA was that the new model had better continuous tone in the highlights and better overall tonal gradation thanks to 14-bit or however many bits they could squeeze into the processing. This means more to me than megapixel counts or frames per second. Well, for whatever reason, there wasn’t any really specific information available on how exactly the new chip’s image processing was going to improve IQ over the previous K10D/GX-10 DSLR models except that “Enhanced Dynamic Range mode gives 200% more dynamic range.” I was unsure about whether this meant “twice the dynamic range from highlight to shadow” (such as you might get via HDR techniques) or whether this meant “twice the dynamic range resolution” between D-max highlights and shadows. My conversations with a tech at Pentax suggests that it’s the latter and that makes sense, but while reading the press release I was hoping for the former. One can dream, right?

Anyway, we can’t know until the production units are available, and that’s something to keep in mind regarding my impressions here of the GX-20’s image quality. Also, the assumption is that the K20D’s IQ will be similar. I made some JPEG test shots at the Samsung booth and my pixel-peeping impressions are as follows (based on ISO 400 and ISO 1600 indoors under fluorescent light):

• Highlights appear controlled and more natural than the previous model; more detail
• Fair bit of luminance noise at ISO 400, may be somewhat of a concern in very shadowy images
• JPEG sharpening seems to balance the sharpness of fine detail with overall smoothness
• ISO 1600 noise is very apparent in continuous tone areas like skin, could be problematic
• As with the K10D, depth of field seems shallow relative to other camera makes (a characteristic I like)
• There is some overall “texture” to the images–not necessarily noise but a certain look to the overall image that may be the result of the JPEG compression. (And to be fair, I see this to a degree with other cameras like the Nikon D300 and Olympus E-3 as well.)

The hope is that the best is yet to come. At least one of my test shots turned out quite nice–one of a black man in a black turtleneck just barely side-lit by the theatrical lights on the other side of the booth. I was impressed by the good detail and tonal smoothness in his face, clothing, and hair.

Finally, the only other thing I could get a sense of at the show was the build quality. The Pentax K20D felt as solid and as well-built as the K10D before it. For whatever reason, the GX-20 did not seem as sturdy and this may have been due to the fact I was using a display model (if you’ve ever seen the display cameras at a big box retailer, you know how abused those units can be). Regarding the slight differences in body design, I prefer the shape of the K20D over the GX-20. The K20D’s protruding buttons should be a bit easier to use with gloves on while it might be a little trickier with the GX-20’s smoother surfaces. However the GX-20’s grip feels more stable in my hand, and the Samsung menu interface is a little less visually cluttered in some menus than the Pentax. In the long run, these are all minor things but they may add up for some users.

Again, just some early impressions from PMA 2008. Take this with a pinch–a big pinch–of salt while we wait for production units.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 7th, 2008 at 3:40 pm and is filed under Samsung Cameras, Pentax Cameras, dailycoverage, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.