I currently own a Pentax K20D and I am very disappointed with my dealings with Pentax representatives. Either the lack of responses, the indifference, or the rudeness in the replies I had received greatly concerns me. Pentax is a fledgling camera company and one might think they should bend over backwards to try to appease their customers. I see no evidence that they care.

When the K7 was announced, I was excited that finally they have dealt with the NR (noise reduction) problem but now I am double disappointed that the K7 has the same problem. Am I the only customer who has complained about this problem? Or Pentax just doesn't care?

There is a serious limitation with K20D that makes bulb exposures extremely difficult and tedious. It involves mandatory noise reduction which doubles every exposure.

Why is this a problem?

This affects nearly all my night time photography. I enjoy taking photos of star trails in my back yard. For example, a 10 minute exposure will take a total of 20 minutes to complete. Last week I wanted to capture lightning, generally I will leave the shutter opened for a minute or more. It was so frustrating because I missed so many potentially great shots because the Pentax K20D was busy doing its noise reduction! Why oh why can't I shut this off?

I talked to my Nikon and Canon friends and they are amazed. One spent 20 minutes flipping through menus, convinced that there must be a way to turn of NR. Finally, the complaints found on the pentaxforums confirmed this is a known problem.

Since this problem still exists with the K7 and there are no signs that Pentax cares to offer a solution, Pentax has lost me as a customer. I will be selling all my Pentax equipment on eBay by September, if I see no solution.