*ist-DS good???

[Brendan]

Lets here from you, What do you think about the new amm. DSLR from Pentax, the *ist-DS.
Design, performance, SD v. CF support
please vote and explain
-Brendan

[Charles Samuels]

The *1st D is my first real digital camera. Not counting point and shoot cheapies. The learning curve is steep but the instant feedback makes learning fast. I love the thing and am constantly looking for new lenses to try. Fabulous camera.

[Jack M]

Brendan - You seem to be the Pentax guru here...why to do prefer the Pentax brand as opposed to Canon or Nikon?

Is Pentax new to the Digital camera (SLR) arena?

[DigitalFreak]

I thought about a Pentax. I bought Canon since I had a few lenses already. I liked the feel of the Pentax.

[Brendan]

Ok, well I got into pk when I was young with a SP500 and than a MX. I had some lenses etc so I kept up the pk collection when I went to a AF body (theZx-5n than the MZ-S and now the DSLR *ist-D) Trust me I was so close back in 2000 to going to Nikon when the MZ-6d (the 6mp full frame dslr that never sold ... (contax's Ndigital was almost the something though) And than in 2002 I was about to jump ship again with the canceled dslr and nothing shown at Photokina... in Feb 03 PMA the ist-d was announced and I got it in October... Why did I stay waiting so long... the investment in glass... though not much it would have been close to 3-4k to replace with new Nikon AF glass (I have a 4 mf k lenses that I still used at the time... now I only use 1 regularly)
I’m not truly opposed to the other cameras... if you look at my show reports you can see I look and criticize equally. Though personally I dislike and distrust Canon, their AF has never really impressed me and the change in lens mounts makes me iffy too.
Just this past fall as the Nikon D2x has shown its head I have said to all my friends that out of all cameras... this one might do it... make me switch, or at least start using 2 systems (Pentax for lighter personal asn. Nikon for the faster more commercial etc asn.) Even configured how much I would spend... and looked at a small loan to do this. But I have been advised to hold the thinking until PMA in Feb. maybe not a Pentax D2x, but something better than what they/I’ve got. So again I’m in a holding pattern.
At my one job I even recommended the D70 to distribute to all the photographers for use/replacement of film bodies, its nice and I even carry it as a back up on my personal asn. But lack of Nikon glass is an issue to me with it... the 18-? Kit lens is nice, but I need something longer too for it to really take up more me memory space on asn. (and a ded flash)
So Nikon and Canon can have no fear, I will praise/punish them just as much as Pentax.
Did I answer your quest well enough? If not just ask me more
-Brendan



Brendan - You seem to be the Pentax guru here...why to do prefer the Pentax brand as opposed to Canon or Nikon?

Is Pentax new to the Digital camera (SLR) arena?

[scottale316]

I love the *ist-DS. It has a great size and feel. The controls are better than the D I think. I wish it had a vertical grip. The learning curve for this camera is short if coming from digital p&s. I bought it at B&H on a Sunday, we were in the Lancaster area and went to a small museum and put it in program, put the 360 flash on and it took great pictures.

I also shoot not one but two other systems [Canon & Minolta.] I am hoping that Pentax comes out with a body that is more of a pro/semi-pro in the future. I know about the 645D. If Pentax would build a camera like the MZ-S in 35mm digital format, I might switch to shooting Pentax for my weddings again. Here's hopping ;)

The *ist-DS is a great camera, as for SD instead of CF it is okay. They are making good 1 meg SD cards now.

Scott

[Ungaloob]

I love the *istDS. Picked mine up in January and have been very impressed and pleased with it. Only complaints I have are that it's a little bit smaller than I would prefer, the navigation pad on the back of it feels a little cheap, and I'm not particularly fond of the bundled software. I've heard gripes about many of the commonly used functions being buried in the menu system, but I've found it to be extremely easy to learn and very quick and efficient to use.

This is my first digital camera so it's hard for me to make quality comparisons, but to me the images look great and the camera appears to be well designed and constructed. I had some concerns about durability after having a nearly new ZX-5n die on me a few years back, but my many years of trouble-free K-1000 use convinced me that the folks at Pentax really know how to design a camera. I've already shot 3,500 + images with my *istDS and the only hint of trouble I've had at all is that it occasionally hangs up during slide show playback and I have to pop the batteries out of it to "unfreeze" it.

Overall, I think this is a great camera.

Bob