Well, that's all very cool!
I don't blame you for ordering the grip from B&H. You've already done your local camera shop a big favour by undoubtedly paying a premium by buying the body from them, so that's a Good Thing you did. Waiting more months for the boatload of grips to arrive in Iceland is not an option, if you can get one cheaper and faster.
And, to think you have the only *istD in the country! Unless, that is, someone already bought one on-line. Or maybe someone who travels a lot, like Bjork, bought one while on tour and brought it back with her. Sorry, I just really like Bjork (not her music, but her), so I had to work her in there somewhere, but I think we already had a "frank likes Bjork" convo, because didn't you say you saw her walking around once? But, I digress...
So, we'll work on the assumption that you ~do~ have the only one in the country, which is terrific, and I'm glad you're enjoying it.
Hopefully you'll find other wonderful ways to spend all that money you have. If you need any help in that regard, contact me off-list. <vbg>
cheers, frank
"The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true." -J. Robert Oppenheimer
From: Thrainn Vigfusson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Enabled Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2003 00:24:04 +0000
I happened to walk into my Pentax store last Monday and asked if the new *ist-D had arrived. It had (only just), and after playing with it for about 45 minutes, I bought it. Only the body, though. They hadn't received an FAJ lens, nor a battery grip.
There were three reasons for this:
1) It was very nice to hold and to use, even without the battery grip. I have
battery grips on both my MZ-5n and MZ-S and find them handle much better that
way. I was also able to find out how to do everything I could think of
without looking at the manual, even without hardly having used a digital
camera before.
2) They had only recieved one specimen (and the salesmen had only just taken
it out of the box to look at it). After waiting several months, I didn't feel
like waiting a few more for the next one to arrive in Iceland. I felt almost
sorry for the salesman, as he appeared very excited about it, and wanted to
play with it a lot more.
3) I had just been paid the final payment for an apartment I sold last summer
and had a whole lot of money doing nothing on my bank account (except
collecting interest).
This all means that I now own the only Pentax *ist-D in the country. What's more, I am now a member of both subgroups of the PDML, the brotherhood and the *isDerhood.
While I feel I should support my local camera shops by doing business with
them (at least on the more expensive items), I went right ahead and ordered
the battery grip (and FA 50mm f/1.4) from B&H. Since I had to wait this long
to see the camera, imagine how long I'd have to wait for the battery grip?
So far I'm very happy with the *ist-D. I've only used it for indoor shots,
since I've been too busy to go out during the few hours of daylight each day.
I find being able to change the ISO value on the fly to be very convenient,
and the high ISO values to be much less noisy than I had feared (and
certainly less than I've seen from high speed films). I have the AF-360 FGZ
flash, and I find it very easy to use with the *ist-D. The area I find the
*ist-D best to use is in macro photography. I have a F 100mm Macro lens and
bellows, and the *ist-D is a joy to use with them. Since I don't have a cable
release for the *ist-D I use the 2 second pseudo mirror lock-up feature. I
have a cable release for the bellows, and use it to close down the aperture
beforehand. The *ist-D corrects the shutter speed accordingly.
As far as image quality goes, the *ist-D doesn't match good slide film, but is
certainly good enough to be printed at A4 (some photos even larger). For the
majority of my photos, that's good enough. I have a Canon FS-4000 film
scanner that I use to scan my 35mm film. I notice more detail (and more
noise) on my computer screen from the scans than from the *ist-D, but these
don't really transfer that well to paper, at least if you don't put your nose
right up to it.
I won't stop using film even though I have an *ist-D, but I suspect I'll use
much less, saving my film use for the more "important" occasions. I'll
certainly use the Pentax 6x7 as much as before, since black and white MF
negatives have a quality of their own. I'll also continue to process my 6x7
photos the old fashioned way, i.e. enlarge the prints in the darkroom.
And finally, all this should be taken with a grain of salt, as I've only owned
the *ist-D for 6 (hectic) days, and my 6x7 only for 4 months.
Thrainn
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