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(More customer reviews)The istD is Pentax's first serious entry into the digital market. Pentax are the people who came up with the K-1000, the no-frills manual camera which was so popular among students and artists. When one thinks of a name brand camera, Nikon and Canon are probably the first names to come to mind. Pentax is the underdog in 35mm, now a serious competitor in the digital world.
The CCD (digital film) is identical to that used in the Nikon D100. The istD accepts all manual focus and automatic focus Pentax lenses. Focal lengths are a bit different - so, if you have a 50mm "normal" Pentax lens, now you will have a 75mm lens when connected to this body.
I plugged in a CF card from my E-10 and all the photos I took showed up in the istD. No drivers or special software required for the USB cable - just plug the camera into a Windows OS and a harddrive appears with your photos on it.
If you are familiar with Pentax's Hyper-Program mode, you have it here again. Pentax is wonderful for tweak-ability. In "green" mode, you can set the program line to favor DOF or shutter speed. Hyper-Program mode allows you to tweak either the shutter or aperture. And, a totally manual mode is available.
There are three user-customizable banks of special tweaks, such as taking a picture before the flash full charges (option) or changing the action of a few of the buttons. In addition to a full bank of pre-set WB settings, there are three custom white balance settings which may be set using a greycard or piece of white paper. And, the viewfinder is loaded with indicators and a bar display light meter.
The best feature which made me say "wow" was the autofocus. Not only will the camera autofocus, but it flashes a red dot to show you what it is focusing on. You can manually select the focus point, or just override everything and put the focus dead center. If you don't like the red dot overlay, even that can be tweaked off.
It's fast. I took a few frames in rapid succession and was not left wanting for something faster. Of the most frustrating features of the Olympus E-10 was trying to fire off another frame - so many missed photos. Not the Pentax. When you need that little extra burst of speed, it's pretty quick.
The camera is also surprisingly light and small. The more common settings are off the program dial, such as ISO, image compression, and pixel depth. Other settings, such as sharpness, contrast, and color saturation are quickly accessed though the menu. The camera turns on fast and ready to fire. Matrix metering, center weighted metering, and spot metering all available. PC socket for external flash plus a hot shoe. Manual, automatic, and predictive continuous autofocus.
And, of course, the images are clear and crisp. It accepts up to a 1gig CF card or microdrive. A single connector provides USB and video out. If you want the LCD display on while the video output is used, well - that's a tweakable setting as well.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Pentax *istD 6.1MP Digital SLR Camera (Body Only)
Pentax's *ist D is the world's smallest and lightest digital SLR (as of April 2003), measuring just 5.0 by 3.7 by 2.3 inches and weighing 18 ounces. It features a clarity of 6.1 effective megapixels, a 16 segment metering system, an-11 point AF sensor, and a continuous shooting rate of 2.7 frames per second. It's also compatible with K, KA, KAF, and KAF2 mount lenses and 645/67 lenses with an adapter.
Optics and Resolution Employing a high-performance CCD with dimensions of 23.5mm by 15.7mm and embracing Pentax's unique image processing technology, the *ist D offers 6.1-megapixel resolution for the recording of precise, superior-quality images.
Storage and Transfer The *ist D is compatible with CompactFlash Type I/II memory cards, and is also compatible with MicroDrives.
More Features An optical pentaprism viewfinder was developed especially for the *ist D. This makes viewing easy with an ample 95% field of view and 0.95x magnification. There is also a superimposed display function that assists composition by illuminating the AF points in red.
Other features include:
New 16-segment metering system achieves more accurate exposure
New 11-point AF sensor (SAFOX VIII) for enhanced focusing
Fast 1/4,000 second shutter speed and high-speed flash sync at 1/150 seconds
Custom function allows functionality to be tuned to satisfy user preferences
Noise reduction function activates for long exposures
1.8-inch, 118,000-pixel LCD monitor
Choice of JPEG, TIFF, and RAW recording formats
Convenient playback functions, such as nine-image and 12x magnification display
Power and Size The camera is powered by 4 AA batteries; rechargeable NiMH batteries are recommended. It measures 5.0 by 3.7 by 2.3 inches and weighs 18 ounces.
The *ist D and the *ist DS Compared
Click here for more information about Pentax *istD 6.1MP Digital SLR Camera (Body Only)
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