Long story short: I bought the *ist-D on the 28th of September and ran off with it for three weeks in Australia. Shot about 800 images and one thing kept bothering me: The DOF preview switch wasn't working.... actually, sometimes it worked but most of the time it didn't. It didn't worry me too much because all my images were exposed properly; in other words, the lens was stopping down just fine (I confirmed this by putting it on "B" and watching the lens diaphragm stop down when the shutter was released).
The next time I was in the local camera shop where I purchased the camera I mentioned this to the owner who said he would talk to the local Pentax rep about getting a replacement. At the same time, I bought the grip which has the DOF preview on it as well. This one worked every time which confirmed that the main switch was at fault. Yesterday, the owner of the store told me to bring the camera in with the box and he would replace it. It was replaced today, and I'm happy to report that my "new" new *ist-D works fine. Christian
