On Tuesday 14 December 2004 00:23, William Robb wrote: > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Peter J. Alling" > Subject: Re: Girlfriend going Canon, help! > > > Isn't your undying love and affection enough? > > Access to Juan's lenses should certainly be enough. > > However, if the bottom line is the bottom line. Canon will buy new > customers every time. > They can afford it.
I'd have to agree here. Canon's distribution muscle really just buries Pentax: the EOS 300D is *everywhere*--catalogs, computer stores, discount warehouses, x*mart..... By comparison, I had to do a bit of legwork to get my eyes on a *ist D, never mind my new *ist DS. The shop I bought my *istDS from only had two of them, and none on display. The shopgirls were pretty intrigued by the camera, particularly by its size (or lack thereof!) as compared with its competition, but otherwise didn't know a great deal about it. As a result, I may have the first or one of the first *istDS cameras in my whole county. The *istDS has certain advantages (so far as I've been able to tell) over the EOS 300D: -Size & Weight. The *istDS is just barely smaller and lighter than the EOS 300D. . -Build quality. My *istDS feels solid. The EOS 300D bodies I've handled don't. This may be subjective. -Viewfinder. The *ist DS has a real glass pentaprism and a good standard focusing screen. A real plus for manual-focusing. -Lenses: If you already have K-mount lenses that you're happy with, the *istD or DS is the obvious choice. Also, Pentax lenses are less heavy & bulky than their Canon counterparts. The EOS 300D, in fairness has the following in its favor: -Lenses. Image Stabilization and Ultrasonic Motors--two things the K-mount can't offer. -CompactFlash, therefore Microdrive support. In the $900 dollar range, then, the *istDS should be a Rebel-killer, at least on paper. That the *istDS is NOT a Rebel-killer, I attribute to the Rebel's ubiquity (again, available EVERYWHERE) and to the notion that people are looking to buy into the whole Canon EF *system*, with the promise of IS and USM lenses--although if film SLR users are any indication, I doubt that the vast majority will buy any additional lenses. Ebay is full of old SLRs being unloaded with the one lens they were used with. By the time we get into the higher ranges of DSLRs, Canon, Nikon, and now KonicaMinolta start to have considerable advantages over Pentax--unless something changes radically and the MZ-D or an equivalent project shakes things up considerably. Sorry for the rambling post. -Luigi
