These are the main advantages of Pentax body over competition:

1. Built in anti shake (so it works with any lens, and lenses are cheaper)
2. Weather seals (you can shoot in the rain and not worry about leaks)
3. Well designed camera control (all keys placed in the right place)
4. Sturdy and professionally looking body
5. Dedicated RAW key
6. Back and front dials (allow to change various settings just by turning them left or right - brilliant and so easy to use)
7. Unique to Pentax sensitivity priority (quickly turn the dial to change ISO)
8. Unique to Pentax Hyper Program (switching between shutter and aperture priority with one move of a dial - how ingenious!)
9. Compatibility with all Pentax lenses
10. Constant on-screen zoom on playback (when you move from one photo to another the zoom stays as you just set it - irreplaceable for comparing details in two adjacent photos)

All competition in the same price range (and much more expensive as well) are not even close to that vast range of options. You can also highly customize it using the dials, which are placed just under your finger tips in a very convenient location - brilliant idea. You can use them (depending on program and your personal settings) to change aperture, shutter speed, ISO, EV compensation, number of exposures etc. or in play-back mode you can use it to zoom in and out or to move to the next photo without changing the zoom.

With the release of K20D Pentax stepped into the market of high end DSLR’s, where it’s unbeatable by similarly priced competition. As a successor of highly acclaimed K10D it inherits all of its functions and builds on them adding so much more.

I have had K10D for two years already, and I’m so grateful that I did not buy Canon 400D. Pentax is so much better. It looks more professional and solid, it has weather seals, nicer menu and anti-shake. With my Pentax body I use Tamron 18-250mm and Tamron 70-300mm - both brilliant lenses, and at $140 / £110 for the latter one, it can’t go any better.

Please, check my Pentax Body and Soul blog.

Please, read the whole professional review of Pentax body K20D at DPReview.com.

Please, submit your comments.

Cheers

Kamil