Over the last few years, I’ve noticed a definite seasonal pattern in the cameras I use, and the type of photographs they encourage.
Broadly speaking, over the late autumn, winter and early spring, I favour digital compacts like my Ricoh GRD III and Lumix LX3, and their high contrast monochrome settings.
Come late spring, there’s a tipping point when I can no longer resist the lush greens and budding flora around me on my photo walks, and I switch to a predominantly colour output.
And for this, I turn to the trusty old CCD sensor Pentax DLSRs.
In the past I’ve had the 2006 flagship K10D, and its Samsung GX10 clone with the same 10MP sensor. Now I have the smaller K-m, which also shares the same sensor.
I also previously owned the little Samsung GX-1S, which again was a clone of a Pentax body, this time the *ist DS2, with a 6MP CCD sensor. That went a while back and now I have its successor, with I believe with the same 6MP sensor, the K100D.
Aside from the size of the images, I can’t tell the difference between pictures made with a 6MP and 10MP camera.
More recently, I’ve had greater success setting up the colours in camera with my later (2012) CMOS K-30, and this camera has the benefit of high contrast mono settings too.
But whilst more than acceptable, the colours and look of the photos made with the K-30 still don’t quite have the charm of those from the old CCD sensors.
Because of this, the K100D and K-m remain my favourite summer cameras.
How about you? Which camera(s) do you favour over the warmer months of the year, and why?
Please let us know in the comments below (and don’t forget to tick the “Notify me of new comments via email” box to follow the conversation).
Thanks for looking.
What Next?
Share this post with someone you think will enjoy it using the buttons below.
Read a random post from the archives.
See what I’m up to About Now.
35hunter 
My Fuji S3 pro is producing lovely colours in the sunshine – particularly shots of the sea up here in the North-East of Scotland. But I am also loving the Olympus E-500 with it’s 8mp kodak sensor, and my old Sony A200.
Interesting Tom, I had to look up that camera. Strange that Fuji built a camera based on a Nikon, I always thought they blazed their own trail. I have an S7000 from around 2003 I think, which is very impressive for its age. Oh I had a Sony a100 and a350. And some gorgeous old Minolta AF lenses!
Yeah, it’s a quirky camera, massive and weird looking but absolutely lovely to hold and use – I just wish I could use all my old Minolta MD lenses on it!
Ah, loved the Minolta MC/MD lenses. I had a lovely little collection a few years back, very classy glass and beautiful results.
I recently got a Pentax K200D with that same 10MP CCD sensor, and took it to our Florida vacation last week. It worked great – it’s quite smaller and lighter than my failing K10D but still weather and dust sealed… which is important when you’re taking your camera to the beach!
I haven’t looked at the files on my computer yet but I expect to be very pleased… this might be my hot weather camera. But one of my sons (my 9yo) already has an eye on it and wants to have it…
I imagine the K200D is very similar to the K-m then. All of this era Pentax bodies are great!