Hi Dave,
ah well, since I own an *istD for half a year now I feel inclined to participate:
If its an idiotic idea, please say so and I'll abandon ship.
naw :)
1-Why did you buy a Pentax *istD.
The Nikon lenses are too expensive for me, for Olympus E-1 the lenses I
wanted did not even exist, Sigma and Canon I found too bulky and the
viewfinders too dark.
The *istD was small, the lenses I wanted (fast primes) affordable, great viewfinder,
and some other goodies like mirror-lockup in timer mode, use of old lenses.
2-Did you previously own a P&S digital prior to the D.
yup, a Canon digital ixus (not sure of the international name of this thing, S1 or something): Small but slow, noisy, short batterie life.
3-Did you compare printed quality of the D to scanned images before and or after the purchase..
beg pardon? I am not sure what you want to ask here. I compared pictures from my old Nikon EM to the *istD, the Pentax won hands down (no surprise) since I had the cheapest of lenses for the Nikon (vignetting, ...).
4-What problems have you had with the D. Was service satisfactory.(asking this to see if the camera has constant faults of one nature or another)
I had no problems and therefore no contact to service.
5-What do you like about the images printed from the camera.
Usually the content :)
6-What DON'T you like about the images printed from the camera.
Images I don't like I don't print - sorry, can't help you here, had no worries with prints so far. Other than where to put them :)
7-What lenses, Pentax or other, do you find work well with your camera/shooting style.(sharpness etc)
Fast primes starting from F1.2 to F1.8.
7a- What lenses, Pentax or other, do you find DO NOT work well with your camera/shooting style. (sharpness etc)
Anything slower then F2.8 somehow does not work for me. And zooms and me somehow don't mix, too (too much to think about while taking a picture I guess).
8-Has digital taken the place of 35mm film shooting for you
yep, a few years ago.
9-Do you still shoot film, if so what format(s)
no, don't even own a film camera anymore (sold my Nikon after I bought the Pentax).
10-How do you post process.(PS, Corel etc)
FixFoto mostly. Sometimes ULead PhotoImage. PS is too bulky for me, I want to shoot fotos, not sit at my comp.
11-Do you shoot RAW or JPEG or what is needed for the job at hand.
jpeg mostly. Raw eats too much space, is too much work and I don't need the
extra quality right now. So one day when the *istD is not good enough for me anymore I'll switch to RAW :)
11a-How big have you printed with quality you are happy with.
So far I only printed up to 20x30cm. I am preparing a 50x75cm print, but it is not ready and not printed yet.
12-How do you rate flash shooting.
I hate flash. Sometimes I use it in very bad light or to fill in, but that
had been less than 0.2% of my pictures. But I always hated flashlights, for me they destroy the ambient light, something I don't like and don't want to have in my pictures.
Tried the flash today with a slow lens (F2.8) as fill flash which was quite useful, though.
13-If a Pentax rep stopped by your house, what would you like to tell him/her to fix or change or add..
Histogram in the 'show picture after taking' and something (red/flashing) to see blownout exposure.
To see the ISO in the viewfinder.
A bit more realistic 'how many pictures 'til CF card is full' for jpg ("you've got room for one image. *shoot* now you're full, no wait, you still got room for one image *shoot* full now, naw, I just found space for one more image *shoot*..." to be continued)
Better battery life indicator for rechargables.
14-What do you use the D for mostly ie: Portraits, sports, weddings etc.
Indoor events, Seabirds, parties, portraits. Whatever is not fast enough to escape.
I know there were other questions I was thinking about last night,but cannot seem to remember, so feel free to add general comments.
Maybe 'what software do you use for organizing your pictures' (none, iMatch, cumulus, ...) - homebrewn style
'would you buy it again, or some other'? - sure the *istD again!
'What is your favorite lens' - 1.2/50 so far
'how many pictures did you make with the *istD so far' - ~7500
'how many of your pictures go to print' - too few :/
'what will you buy next for the *istD' - 1.8/31, split screen for viewfinder
'why didn't you send this to me off list' - cause it's way more fun out in the open *grin*
Sam
