John Coyle wrote: > Old it may be, but my *ist-D still knocks out perfectly good A4 size > prints if needed, and still mainly works as designed. I can no longer > zoom into a frame on the LCD screen, but otherwise everything works as > well as it did when brand new. > It was such a ground-breaker for Pentax - both former PDML-er Ryan and > I both bought two, and while Ryan now shoots with the dark side, I > think he enjoyed the camera for some while. I eventually sold my > second *ist-D to another former PDML-er, Tanya, who used it to start > her now very successful professional career. > What with owning an SV for 7 years ( and now owning another which I > still use from time to time), two ME's for 13 years, and recently > shooting mainly with my now 17-years old MZ-S, I have great respect for > the quality of Pentax camera design and manufacture.
Brian Walters wrote: >I got an *ist D a few years ago from Mark C to replace my *ist DS when it died - well, it didn't actually die. The shutter release button stopped working but I could still >use the camera by plugging in a cable remote. Anyway - I never really warmed to the D, fine camera that it was (is), mainly because the menu structure was so different to >that in the DS. I eventually got the DS repaired and I occasionally fire up both cameras just for old time's sake. >In my case the '*' stands for 'masoch'. I'm amazed when I put the *ist D and the K3 side by side. I remember all the discussions here about the potential launch of a Pentax DSLR, the run up to the first sales and the conversations thereafter. Would digital cameras last - durability (I think we're OK with that now)? Would they get updated every other week? Would prices go up or down? Would old digital cameras become worthless? I think the K-3 II is on sale over here at around £749 right now, and the *ist D was c.£1200 on launch. They do get updated, although not every week, and it has to be said in real terms prices have dropped significantly and DSLR technology has gone through the roof. Early cameras aren't worth a lot even in good order, although I wonder in time if they will become collectable, in the same way film cameras are (and have remained items of value for nice examples). The biggest surprise is that in 2015, the *ist D is still a useful camera. We moaned about how long Pentax were dragging their feet to launch a DSLR but we weren't disappointed with what hit the stores. I hope the FF camera has a similar welcome later this year and is a success, even though I don't intend to buy one immediately. I'm going with photographer-ist. Two can play at silly names. Malcolm -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
