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Pentax DSLRs also have stabilization in the body, so it works with any lens you use.

not worth it

How about a reason or two, #2?

#2, you're full of beans... digested, gassified beans.

This camera body is a heck of a camera, and a superb value for someone who has older lenses for Pentax cameras, whether K-mount or screw mount -- it will take them and deliver great photos. Every lens you use on this body has shake reduction, because the shake reduction is in the body, not the lens.

It's even a good value for someone who has to buy lenses, because of the huge number of lenses that can be picked up cheap... or Pentax's famous pancake lenses that are very highly rated and as close to flat as you can get.

Nice deal, great camera. We have an earlier model and it works great with existing investment in 3 different Pentax lenses

Wide-eyed entrants into the DSLR arena usually gravitate towards Canons and Nikons and put them in auto mode to take family snaps.

Old geezers who care about boring stuff like shutter-speed and aperture usually labor it out with the Pentax.

//K10D_User

Decent camera for a avg. price for the photo enthusiast. See detailed review here: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/pentaxk20d/page34.asp

If you are not one to argue over "Canon vs Nikon", (and don't really care too much about live view), then you might want to consider this.

Just shot with my K20D in the pouring rain at a National Monument over the weekend. Every Canon and Nikon owner I saw was stuffing their cameras under their jackets. A few people asked me if I was worried about mine getting wet. He he, he ...

Living in Florida, I learned to go Pentax weather sealed long ago. This thing has survived a 6 hour straight, virtual monsoon in Miami before, even though it's only rated for 2 hours of rain. Not an issue whatsoever, and that was a full year ago.

The newer K-7 (basically the K20D with a newer, smaller body/allow and more buffer/faster logic) even goes one step further to be even sub-freezing and high-temperature tolerant beyond other cameras well outside of its class.

In a nutshell, everyone agrees that Pentax's build quality, including seals as standard, is the ultimate, and Pro-level (and beyond what some call "Pro"). They glass may be shared with Tokina, but it's hardly Tokina's build quality, and even the cheapest lenses are up to Pentax standards that are hard to match (much less anywhere near the same price point).

A few years ago, when I was still researching for my DSLR investment, it came down to this Pentax and another non-Canikon brand. I went with the other brand, but there have been several moments where I wished I wouldn't have.. Pentax is a fantastic brand.

Is this price a good deal?

And, how is the lens quality? Specifically of the DA* variety. I had read several reports at the time from people claiming that lens QC was all over the map, and actual samples of the same lens had a "significant"(?) variance in image quality between them. Is this not the case anymore (or was it ever?).

#9, take a look at the Pentax DSLR forum on http://www.dpreview.com -- you'll find opinions (and lots of 'em!), along with one of the most helpful online groups I've ever run in to.

What I gather is that there has been some quality variance, but it doesn't seem to be anything more than for other camera's similarly-priced lenses. One very neat thing about the K20D is that you can set individual lens profiles, in case this lens tends to back focus, and that one front focus, while the others are OK -- each has its own user-settable correction.