Re: Ken Rockwell's review of the istDs ...

[Peter J. Alling]

Jamie Walling wrote:
WOW.  It's amazing how defensive this list gets. For a
moment i almost thought I was on a Leica list.
 

You obviously don't hang out on the Leica list much.
It's also amazing how much people here slam Ken
Rockwell about not including facts, and then they
 

We're not an authority publishing a supposedly hands on review.  He 
reviewed a camera
apparently a number of cameras authoritatively without ever having seen 
them.  That's like
doing anatomical drawings of an elephant after hearing rumors of such a 
beast.  Totally
dishonest.

themselves do not tell the facts.  Some general info
on Ken's site and this review in general (BTW ... I do
not know him at all, but have read his site for years
since I used to use Nikon MF and he has one of the
better lens sections on the web)
 

For Nikon maybe.  If he wrote a glowing review of a Nikon product, would I
believe that either.  Probably not.
He wrote this review BEFORE anyone had access to the
istDs.  It is a preview, not a review.  He even said
his opinion might change if he uses one.
 

He slammed it in a preview.  He slammed Canon cameras in previews.  _I 
don't care._
The most you can do in a preview is list features and give a first 
impression.  He went
a lot farther than that and regularly does so.  It wasn't billed as a 
preview by the way,
he bills it as a test review, and I quote:

"**Pentax *ist DS *istDS Test Review"**
He should get a new headline writer.
Disclaimers on another page don't cut it either.
By the way he now has a disclaimer on the main page for this "review" 
due to the "hate" mail
he's received.  It wasn't there before. 

His site is an opinion site, and he goes out of his
way to make that perfectly clear.  He also makes it
perfectly clear what he is looking for in a camera and
that he is ONLY judging cameras based on what he is
looking for in a camera... 
 

Yes it is an opinion site.  That becomes obvious when you read it. 

If you read his pages... based on what he is looking
for, the Pentax istDs does not cut it.
 

That's not his recommendation.  He doesn't dismisses it just for 
himself, he dismisses it for everyone. 
Even if they are just starting out and don't have a large investment in 
other manufactures lenses. 
Even if I didn't own a bunch of Pentax lenses the *ist-Ds would be 
viable competition for the
Rebel-D and the D70 which don't really cut it by his criteria either.  
(Ok, the Nikon cut it because
it says Nikon on the prism housing, but then he had to ignore a lot of 
other things).

FYI .. he gave the istD a favorable review when it was
introduced, and personally uses Pentax spot meters. 
Hard to say he is anti pentax.
 

I don't think anyone said he was anti Pentax.  I believe the consensus 
was that he was
in my words an opinionated idiot, but I'm just being judgmental, kind of 
like he is.

=====
Jamie Walling

		
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