Pentax K10D - Awesome Specs

Pretty exciting news for all of us with the announceent today of the Pentax K10D - 10 MP, waterproof body, image stabilization for every pentax lens ever made, sensor cleaning, but get this, price to be about $900 U.S. - incredible. This has to shake up the industry. Amongst other things (like forcing prices down on other makes of camera), this implies that money can be made at this level of camera. What will this do to prices of cameras like the D200 from Nikon and 5D from Canon? Pretty exciting times. What will Canon and Nikon do to respond?

These are really practical features to add - not frills like you see on some cameras - impressive looking but not really useful - who wouldn't love a sensor that was easy to clean, image stabilization without buying it in every single lens, or forking out big bucks for a robust camera that can take the beach, stream, snow storm or rain.

That said, landscape photographers almost universally use a tripod (image stabilization not helpful), no sensor has enough pixels to keep landscape photographers happy, and 10 MP makes prints only 30% bigger than 6 MP (square root of 10 divided by 6) - say the diffference between an 8X10 and 11X14 (almost). Of course, landscape photographers also shoot friends weddings, grand children, flowers, sports, etc. so still pretty handy features.