NEW *ist D review.

[gjm1]

There is a new *ist D review on-line at http://www.megapixel.net.

Enjoy.

 

Gord

[keith_merrill]

Nice pictures of the camera and informative about the controls. I wish they had a rating of the images and the camera in general compared to c/n. Not that I am trying to make a war, but I would like to know some comparisons.

 

 

The camera certainly looks very functional. The camera controls seem to be somewhat like my Pz-1p's, which is one of the easiest cameras I have ever used. I love the fact I don't have to take my eye off the viewfinder to change shutter speeds and aperature. It seems like the *istD keeps that. I would like to hear from users who have used and evaluated the camera and find what is good and bad about it. Looks neat though.

[willie_jan_bons2]

i hold it at pentax. It actually has the same body structure as the mz-s. I would buy the battery pack also, that was one of the reasons i bought the mz-s. The z1-p did not have a battery pack.

 

the only problem now is that canon made a new digital version for about 1200 euro from plastic crap (pentax costs here in europe about 1900 euro). Most of the people do not care about quality, just price.

[keith_merrill]

Yeah, I have tried some canon stuff, the Eos 1n and the Elan 7 cameras. They are pretty good, but I could not get used to the user interface. This is really the reason I stuck with pentax for 35mm. The camera works the way I want it to. Someone in a thread on this forum was saying that the reason pentax isn't considered in the same ranks as canon/nikon is because of lack of a professional body. Well, I guess to each his own. The lenses are pretty darn good (the FA versions - not the consumer plasticky ones) and the bodies have worked for what I want it for. Plus, if you really want to be "professional" than why don't you have a medium format camera? Anyway, this digital pentax looks quite interesting and seems to deliver like the past pentax "professional" 35mm bodies.

[goetz_adam_gageik]

Thanks for the link, interesting. Below please find a couple of links to mail order stores in Germany where the Pentax *ist D currently sells for 1661 � and 1659 �. I used both of them in the past without any problems and they are reputable dealers.

 

http://www.technikdirekt.de

http://www.fotokoch.org/digifoto/digipentax.shtml

 

Adam

[adam_whaley]

I have recently purchased an istD after having been a long time Pentaz PZ-10 user. I

have had it for 2 days, here are my initial impressions:

 

Good Things:

1.The controls are so silmilar, that I could almost use the camera on the first day

without looking at it.

2.I have only had to use the menu system once or twice, there is a physical key on the

body of the camera for almost every common function.

3. Size: smaller than my PZ-10 which was already small for an SLR body

4. Photo quality: so far in limited testing I have been very impressed. Compared to my

previous system of shooting film and scanning the negatives, my results on the

computer are far better. Haven't tried getting professional prints done yet.

5. Body construction (with a few exceptions noted below). It feels solid, but it is light

and small.

 

Bad:

1. The rubber cover for the USB connection looks likes something that will get easily

beat up over time, I wish they had included a spare

2. Battery door feels very flimsy, this seems like the first thing that will break.

3. Doesn't include a remote switch, this is an impossible accessory to live without I

would gladly have paid a little more just to have it included.

4. Doesn't include an AC adapter. RAW and TIFF files take a while to transfer to the

computer and it would have been nice to just be able to hook up to AC from the

beginning while doing this.

 

Overall, I'm very happy. It seems like a camera I'll be using for a long time. I have

taken just a few test pix here:

 

http://www.themop.net/pictures/istdshoot1/istdshoot1.html

 

These pix were take as TIFF files on the camera, transferred to photoshop and saved

as reduced size JPGS.

 

Adam Whaley