To measure and compare the Pentax K10D's noise levels we photographed the standard Gretag Macbeth ColorChecker with it and a number of rival models using their best quality JPEG and default image tone, sharpening and noise reduction settings.

The crops are taken from the original images and presented here at 100%. To compare typical noise in skies and dark shadows the crops were taken from patches 3 and 24 respectively.

Judging from the crops below, the K10D delivers very clean results up to 400 ISO. At 800 ISO some texture through noise and noise reduction has become visible, but it's only really noticeable with the sensitivity increased to 1600 ISO; unusually for a camera of its class, the K10D doesn't offer a 3200 ISO mode.

All in all it's a good result for the K10D here which appears to match or even beat some of its closest 10 Megapixel rivals, but as always the flat colour swatches of Gretag chart can mask a number of processing evils. Check the next results page to see how the K10D compares with a real-life outdoor subject at every ISO, and be sure to also view our K10D gallery for more examples at high sensitivities.