Experience comes out of experimentation is an adage known to many. Those who have experimented with life as such know that each of their ‘experiments’ teach them something. This is also why the physicist Thomas Alva Edison spoke about his failures as “I haven’t failed; I just discovered a hundred wrong options.” Digital SLR cameras also tend to offer a lot of control to the user, allowing him or her to experiment with its settings. Thus, we see a lot of people playing not only with shutter speed and aperture, but also with the ISO settings in cameras. The only problem is the fact that many do not know how to coordinate ISO ratings with shutter speed and aperture. The Pentax K20D is, however, one DSLR that offers to give the user a reference to start from in terms of exposure values for a certain ISO value. This 14.6mp successor of the K10D, thus, gives user the Sensitivity Priority (Sv) mode, along with Tv and Av modes.
Design and FunctioningComparisons with its predecessor K10D notwithstanding, the Pentax K20D is solidly built, water resistant and not easily affected by dust either. The K20D boasts an extremely reliable dust-proof, water-resistant construction, which makes it possible to use this camera in the rain or dusty locations without worries. This camera also features a 2.7-inch LCD screen, and its wide-view design allows the photographer to check the monitor image from approximately 160 degrees both vertically and horizontally. The K20D features a unique Sensitivity-Priority (Sv) mode, which is designed to automatically select the optimum combination of aperture and shutter speed for a user-selected sensitivity in terms of ISO. This camera is equipped with a new Custom Image function that lets the users select one of the six modes and adjust the image's finishing touches to their presence, allowing a minor adjustment of tone, saturation, contrast, and sharpness. The K20D features a new Live View function, which allows the user to view the image on the LCD monitor on the camera's back panel during shooting. This comes handy when the photographer must move his or her eye from the viewfinder in specialized applications, such as low-and high-angle compositions. This camera also comes with Pentax-developed SR (Shake Reduction) mechanism, which effectively reduces camera shake for sharp, blur-free images even under demanding shooting conditions. This camera is compatible with SD/SDHC cards.
