I've had my istD since June. I am heavily vested in Pentax lens so it was a no brainer although I was somewhat anti digital. It has met all of my expectations. I have a PZ1p MESuper Zx5n 67II Rolleiflex 645 and I've shot only the istD almost exclusively. ERNReed caught me in San Antonio using the Rolleiflex. I took one photo and the film and the exposure is still in the camera.
The istD will do for me for a long time. If you have professional aspirations maybe you should look at others. I don't care what the next istDrev is I have more pixels than I'll ever need. Mine has me hooked. The bigger question is whether digital is ruining my photography. I miss the film images but I am addicted to instant reviews of my photos. With kids, you get better than a point and shoot and you can use all of your lens, changing at random, buy cheap but excellent M and K series lens and shoot thousands of photos. You won't know what to do with all of the photos. Its fun. I bought an Epson PictureMate. It is small and cranks out great photos, supposedly somewhat archival for less that 29 cents each. The cartridge has far outlasted the pack of paper. Right now my complaint is the damned DA14 wide angle lens is nowhere to be found in the US. I sold some Mamiya equipment and have a little spare cash and can't find one. But it is coming, I hope. If Pentax shut down I still have more Pentax stuff than I will ever use. I still have MESuper, MX, old 6x7 SuperProgram and they are all still usable and plenty of shops will repair them and they are all 20 or more years old. I have a lot of cameras but I am not wealthy. The istD was a big move for me. I feel your pain. Good luck. Any decision you make will be a good decision. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, September 10, 2004 4:45 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Pentax into the future Hi everyone, I have enjoyed the PDML on and off for the last 3 years (though mostly off for the last year). I have been using Pentax cameras, since my first purchase 4 years ago. I started with an ME Super, and then graduated to a PZ-1 because I really wanted AF (i have kids) and DOF preview. I have a nice little set of modest lenses ... the 50mm Pentax M, the 28-70 FA 4.0, and a 70-210 F. I absolutely love my Pentax and equipment. Having recently decided to make my first step into the DSLR market however, I am concerned about Pentax's ability to remian competitive in the digital market in the long term picture. Money does not flow freely for me, and investing in a DSLR will be a very significant investment (although I suppose this is the case for most of us). While I yearn for nothing more than to remain a true Pentax user, I am worried going for their DSLR might be a mistake. Is it time to consider converting to one of the "others" ? Is there any consensus on whether or not Pentax can continue to keep up? I suppose this might be a tough question to answer, but I figured what better place to find out than the PDML. If this has been a common topic of discussion, I would appreciate being pointed in the direction of specific archive posts that I may find useful. Thanks in advance Jeremy [EMAIL PROTECTED]
