Hi, I tried it yesterday as well. Let me start with bad things: I dont' like the looks, although it is a bit less ugly in flesh as on photographs.
The built is the worst af Pentax cameras I've ever tried, but I do own MZ-S and MZ-3. I'd say it is somewhere there with MZ-10 or a bit above. It seems better than Canon 300V or similiar, but still. Thumb wheel indeed looks and feels bad. I really don't like user interface for selecting aperture, but this is common in the price segment where *ist competes.What the heck, it is not a camera I intend to buy. New lens release button feels worse than before. More less neutral point: Red imposed AF points are not really rectangulars but more small squares. The are not intrusiv. Normally I like small AF points but these are really small. It shows that AF area was developed with 1,5x digital crop factor in mind. It seems they will be great on *istD. Good points: AF seems a lot quiter. I tried *ist with my Fa 80-320 which is a very loud AF lens. Together with *ist, it seemed much queiter, but bear in mind it was loud around me and I didn't made a direct comparison with MZ-S. Take it with a grain of salt. AF seems to work really well. Better then in MZ-S. Chosen AF point pointed into the middle of the persons chick ( no strong lines there), no huntig though. Croos sensors work. Just slight whiirr and it is in focus. I tried it several times with different sensors and every time it worked very well. AF selecting pad works well. Easy to use or select AF points. I like the size but I like small cameras. That's it. Matjaz > It is small. Really small. And yes, the lens mount is crippled for no > other reason than software/greed. I did like the autofocus and the > selector (apparently) stolen from Nikon (they have good ideas once in > a while, too). Very, very cheaply built. Terrible feel on the scroll > wheel, like it was ready to break and /or malfunction at any minute. > Viewfinder was mediocre at best, even with the mighty FA* 85 1.4 on > it, which looked ridiculous. It didn't even look like silver plastic, > more like silver painted plastic. Very cheap feeling camera; didn't > try it with the grip. I do hope they transplant the autofocus into a > nice updated MZ-SII with twin scrollwheels and without the crippled > lensmount. And the depth of field preview from the MZ-S is definitely > a keeper. > > C. > >
