On Tue, 11 Nov 2003 19:55:21 -0800, Bruce Dayton wrote: >So, big question to all *istD owners: >After having purchased and used your new DSLR, are there any of you >who now have second thoughts? Perhaps wishing you had gone the Canon >or Nikon route instead? Given the opportunity to do it again, would >you still purchase the *istD?
Yes. I'm very happy with it. Minor gripes are that the Pentax Photolab software offers an extra step of sharpening than the camera and that there aren't plugins for my favourite image sorting and editing programs yet, so If I use RAW I need to do an extra step in processing. I expect these to be transitory things - Pentax will release firmware updates and the software companies will get tired of my emails to them and add support. I have written an Access database which shows me information about every picture I have taken on the *ist D and displays a thumbnail of the image and tells me which CD I have the original in. This makes it easy to keep track of what I have pictures of since I have been taking more pictures since I got the *istD. It also has a record of all my old slide images and a thumbnail of the ones I have scanned, so it's doubly useful. >Even further, would you recommend it above other choices to someone >else who doesn't have any investment in Pentax Glass? Depends. I have a friend at work who has just had his equipment (Nikon) stolen and he is in the market for new gear from scratch. He looked at the *ist D and the MZ-S but they are to small for his hands, they just don't fit (The Z1-p fits, but I don't recommend him buying a system based on a camera that is no longer produced). The *ist D has as good or better build quality as the other digital SLR's and can produce images as good as the other's too. If it fits your needs and your hands, then why not? >Obviously for me, I have a stray zoom or two (28-80 Tamron, 80-320 >Pentax) and an AF280T, 2 AF400T's and a bunch of 67 glass. Other than >that, I am free to choose any direction. So, is the *istD the right >choice? The advice I give to anyone who is looking for a camera is go pick one up and try it. If you know something about photography and how to use an SLR you should have no problems doing 90-95% of what the camera can do without looking at the manual. Leon http://www.bluering.org.au http://www.bluering.org.au/leon
