> -----Original Message----- > From: T Rittenhouse [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Well, Canon and Sony video cameras have optical > stabilization, all the rest > have digital. Most stories I have heard (I have never used > a modern video > camera) say the optical stabilization works better. > However, after picking > up and looking through Tom Van Veen's 10D with the > 70-200/2.8IS, I can tell > you that most people who compare it and the istD.... > > ...are going to buy the istD. I was absolutely amazed at > how small the view > finder was in the 10D. And how big and heavy that > camera/lens combination > was. Oh, yes, if you need that combination, you need that > combination. But > if you don't, there is no comparison. The istD wins without > even turning > over the hole card. The istD is about the size of a ME, the > smallest 35mm > SLR while the 10D is about 1/2 the size of a Mack Truck.
Tom is right, the finder is better, and the body is smaller. The finder on the istD seems similar to the MZ-S, while the 10D reminds me of the 5n. As has been said, it was a pre-production sample, so not everything worked like it will, but here are my impressions: - Impressively small and well built. - Excellent finder. - Excellent AF point selection. Vast improvement over the MZ-S, better than the 10D. - AF seems pretty good, on par with the 10D, though it has typical Pentax AF motor noise. My impression is that the AF was about the same as the MZ-S, but with more points. - The shutter seemed slightly louder than the 10D. - The menus and buttons are well thought out. - The lowest ISO is 200. The camera has a mode where you can create tiffs instead of jpgs or raw files, and I think that's the mode everyone shot in this weekend since we won't have access to any raw conversion software. That means that the tiffs I'm looking at are dependent on the in-camera settings for sharpness, color saturation, contrast, etc., and I have no idea what those settings were. I assumed they'd be zero'd out, but didn't check. Color seems *very* saturated, about on par with having the 10D set at highest color saturation. They're very sharp out of the camera, about equal to +2 (out of 3) on the 10D. Overall, they look good, there's nothing glaringly wrong with the files. The color saturation is probably due to a setting somewhere. I didn't give it a very thorough workout, as we were told the firmware is very beta, and I would think things like noise at high ISO's and flash metering would be firmware dependent. This is a *very* nice little camera, and I'm sure Pentax will sell all they can make. tv
