Should I upgrade my K10D?

I've had a K10D for about 2.5 years and love the functionality, but lately have been increasingly disappointed with my shots. I find myself shooting my kids indoors, so less than great light and subjects moving around a lot. Just bought the DA* 16-50 f2.8 lens and seen some improvement, but wondering if the K20D would better suit the lens and conditions (worth the $800). I also don't want to buy the K20D if something is just around the corner too. Or am I just at point to consider a whole new body/lens system? I have several pentax lenses and a pentax flash, so that would be a considerable investment. Thanks.

What you feel now probably is what every enthusiastic photographer feel after working with the same camera for sometime....... the feeling of inadequacy and want something better.

If budget is not a constrain, then there is no harm looking into all possibilities, including buying ' a whole new body/lens system '. Otherwise to solve your immediate problem, you can look into the Manual mode and explore what you can do using manual control of the Shutter Speed, Higher ISOs, Wider Apertures and buying more powerful Flashguns.
These are what people do in the old days to shoot indoor pictures, where low light and movement make it a challenge to get the pictures right, except that during that time, people don't have the luxury of high ISOs.

Alternatively, you might want to go into multiple flash systems and use the commander mode of your camera or the main flash to control each of the flash.

This will keep you busy for quite a while and lead you to a completely new horizon, if you haven't tried them before.

You will find that there is no end to buying cameras as every year there will be a couple of new and better cameras appearing in the market.

It's often quoted that ' better cameras only makes you the proud owner. ', but for those who can afford, I wouldn't discourage them from buying better cameras.

Thank you both for your responses. I think I'm going to go ahead with the purchase. I agree that I should try the higher ISO's for these shots and that's where I'm seeing the problems with the K10D. I just can't accept the level of noise at ISO > 400 and, though I can improve the noise in photoshop, it takes more time than I want to spend and frankly it just seems to "fuzz" up the picture. I agree there will always be a better camera coming out, buy the K20D is still a pretty good deal and, from what I hear, is worth the upgrade. Thanks again!

For dealing with noise... I should tell you that the software is something really important.

I shoot only RAW, and use Capture One.
I set the luminous noise reduction to 5 or 10, depends on the ISO used, and let Capture One get rid of the chroma noise. The results are excellent, and I've used them professionally also (my main camera at work is the Nikon D3, but also shoot with Nikon D300 and Hasselblad H2 with P25 back (we rent the P45 when needed).

I don't like photoshop, as it has too many features that I would NEVER use in my life, and I prefer Capture One for batch processor.

Try with a different software. People say that the best for the Pentax K20 is the Silkypix...

Alan Schamber.

A Question usually ends with the OP making a decision, in this case, the decision is to upgrade the K10D to K20D.

However, for people who reads this question, and answers, the point that K10D has ' unacceptable noise at ISO >400 ' will linger long in the mind, including how to deal with it.

It is for these people, that I searched and found 3 related information, and there are plenty more if one Google for it.
a. Pentax 10D- A Hands On Report particularly the section on High ISO noise and Banding. Of special interest is the mention of software noise reduction with Noise Ninja, my favorite.
b. Hockey games captured by Pentax K10D using ISO1250 where the writer goes well beyond ISO 400 to capture Hockey games in action.
c. dPreview forum on K10D high ISO revealed

The last is a long thread showing many were interested in the subject, way back in 2006. 3 years have gone by, and the thread has since ended without any new posts, does that mean ............

I certainly appreciate the follow up on software solutions to noise at high ISO. I will look into them. I still think that the K20D will help me avoid some software that would other wise be necessary to clean up the images. The hockey shots look pretty good, however, I think the challenges in hockey shooting are the angles and distances covered. The light on the rink isn't that bad since the ice is a huge reflector. Shooting indoor football is harder. And I'm sure I could do better myself with my K10D if I work at it more, which I will anyway. But as an amateur, I just have to have some gimmies to help me along and keep me interested. LOL

I am not saying that the K10 is a bad camera for ISO 400... but I'm saying that the K20 is the best APS-C camera from ISO 400 to ISO 1600 as far as I've seen. So, I'm just saying that the K20 is better, not that the K10 is bad.

Alan.

Alan,
The issue you mentioned does not arise as readers can see that the statement was actually found in Adam's response on 21 Jan 9.11am.

I need to clear it to make the picture more complete, that people have used ISO 1250 with K10D and yet produced reasonably good pictures, so K10D owners are encouraged to give it a try instead of giving it up so easily.
In fact reports that I have found indicate K10D should have no problem up to ISO 800

K20D on the other hand , will do better with the slightly larger Samsung CMOS sensor instead of the Sony CCD of K10D.
This report comparing K10D and K20D gives more insight on the differences based on sensor alone, while potential buyer can also take into consideration the live view feature of K20D.
For those who can afford, no harm upgrading to K20D. For others, K10D can still satisfy the average users.

Yes, and to clarify, I don't dislike my K10D. I still plan to keep it as second camera, but use it more for outdoor shots or controlled environments. I may have sounded too harsh when I said the noise above ISO 400 was unacceptable. I notice it, but I also don't have much experience with good noise reduction software. I've just used photoshop and I i find that the details get fuzzed out too much. So a better noise reduction app would make the K10D better at those higher ISO's, as the article referenced pointed out. However, I still think I can do less post-processing with the K20D. We'll see. I'm really glad I found this forum, though. It's been very helpful.

I suppose this closes the question and further points , perhaps, should be raised under a new question where it will attract more attention and input from a wider spectrum of readers.

All I can tell you Adam... is that I think you should try other software.
For noise reduction in the very same software, I prefer the Capture One output rather than photoshop...

But well... it's all about if you want to try it out.

Alan.