A Luminous Landscape review from 2003 maintains the following: "Regrettably Pentax has missed the mark with the *ist D ... they can't ignore ... two serious flaws ‹ a highly problematic card compartment and the lack of a histogram and highlight alert in post-exposure review mode (only on subsequent image playback, but not right after taking the shot) ... The latter can probably be fixed with a firmware upgrade. The CF card eject problem likely needs a body redesign" Has Pentax fixed these problems in later-produced bodies or through firmware upgrades? Peter Sweden
The short answer is I believe that both "problems" were "fixed" in the *istDS. I don't own one so I don't know for sure but reading the reports from others, I think they have been.
From my perspective as an owner of the *istD, neither of these "problems" are particularly noteworthy. After reading a number of reviews (by owners, users and possibly pretenders as we have seen recently) I bought the *istD and I bought some Post It "flags" from an office supply store. The flags I cut down a bit and stuck one to each of my CF cards so that if it didn't eject well from teh *istD I would have some substantial to pull it out with. The flags work perfectly and are needed on some CF cards and not on others.
As for the lack of a histogram, I could care less, because I turned off the instant review feature because it was annoying at night, I never looked at it and it was needlessly using battery power.
To me the most glaring "flaw" is the the door for the batteries. When using the rechargeable CVR batteries one has to apply too much pressure, in my opinion, to close the door and I worry that it might break. Of course Pentax doesn't recommend using the rechargables so calling it "flaw" isn't fair but it is to me.
I love the *istD and would buy another if it were within my budget.
Larry
