Pentax K20D 14.6MP Digital SLR Camera with Shake Reduction (Body Only)

I owned it less than a year, but the camera has been handled less than perfect. It has been dropped at least three times, but the true test was a complete soak. My daughter had around her neck, while trying to get closer to the ocean, at cliff walk's 40-steps, Newport. She slipped and went completely down to the water. The camera went completely under water with her. I took battery as a precaution and noticed inside compartment was dry. I let it dried for few days just to be sure before tried to use it again. Well, it worked perfectly, like nothing ever happened to it. I had 18-250 lens at that time, and unfortunately, it did not survived. I wish I had one of those weather-sealed lens.

On the side note, it does capture good images and I agreed with other reviewers.

I have owned Pentax cameras for 25 years. They are simple easy to use cameras with the controls in just the right place to give the operator complete freedom to take any shot. You won't find yourself winding into a pretzel in order to make a simple adjustment.

The K20D is a fantastic camera that performs like one 3 or 4 times its price. I have shot images of all types and brightnesses and have found it to be excellent. The brightness curve is a little low and will need to be brought up a little but this is far better then being too high and blowing out detail.
The battery life is excellent allowing me to get 750-1000 shots before needing to make a change. I use little flash so I can enjoy the full colors of my setting without blown out spots and bad reflections.
I have great night vision and the auto focus will start to loose it a little before I do. I can quickly switch to manual focus and keep on shooting. I avoid pushing the ISO over 800 to minimize noise. You will find the detail is still excellent at high ISOs where other cameras will sacrifice detail to keep the noise to a minimum. I personally would rather have a full detail shot with a little noise of that important moment then a low noise low detail shot.
My lens choice is the DA 18-250mm. This is a fantastic lens that surprisingly does the whole range well. When I shot film I was constantly in need of lenses and would often carry 3-5 on me. This lens will almost do it all. I am still planning on getting a wide of 10-12mm and a longer zoom of 400m or more.
The in body shake reduction system allows me to shoot down to 1/2 second while holding the camera. I have been doing this for a long time and have trained myself to hold very still but with it off, the best I can do is 1/15th. I would still recommend a tripod but knowing I can still take the shot in almost any condition is very comforting.
The bottom line is that this camera is well worth the money. It is the best value for anything even remotely close in capability. Don't let the fact that Cannon and Nikon hog all the press, keep you from giving this a serious look.

This is the best camera for amateur-professional photographers. I've owned Nikons, Canons, and Minoltas (film cameras) in the past 30 years. None can match the "most bang for the buck" to the Pentax K20D. I highly recommend this camera to everyone looking to get into DSLRs.

Coming from the K100DS, the K20d is a vast improvement. The overall speed, responsiveness and quality are very good. Unfortunately the K20 suffers from the digital age. Pixel peeping, (which is the equivalent to looking at a Rembrandt or a Picasso with a magnifying glass) forums, internet reviews have put more weight on this and all cameras than they deserve. In reality all cameras are just tools. Having to work around the quarks and shortcomings of the K100DS I have learned to work with the Pentax system. No Pentax doesn't have the worlds fastest AF, but in all honesty sports shooters will tell you they shoot in manual and honestly until the price of the K7 comes down you can live with it or buy a Nikon D3x for $7000. Yes the meter underexposes, but this is more a thing of understanding when and which (spot, center, multi) meter has this tendency. The high iso is crap, but so is the high iso on every apc-s sensor. Some look better than others, but these sensors aren't full-frame and they shouldnt as of yet be expected to perform in this way. This camera cost $650 compared to a D700. Up to iso 2000 the image is fairly impressive to me. The ultimate in quality still lays with film especially medium format and large format.

Ultimately the K20D is a very impressive tool, but it is just that, a tool for making photographs. Bells and whistles cost money as can be seen with the K7, which I'm sure is a fine camera but for the cost I can pick the K20 and the limited 77mm 1.8 lens. Ultimately the camera shouldn't take the picture for you, you should use the camera to create. Understand the tool, learn it and take control of it.

I've had my K20D since December 2008 and have shot about 3000 images. This is a wonderful camera - solid build, set up and adjustments easy to do on the fly thanks to the quick access controls. I am also particularly impressed with the night time images it takes.

The battery life is outstanding as well. From a single charge, I can do a full 8GB card at 14MP per image.