LaurenOE
Active member
I’m a Pentax user from the mid-eighties (MWF – 40ish) and I suppose that I’d be considered a mild Pentax bigot. I’m not a pro, but I’ve owned a K1k and still have my MeSup and MG. When I traveled to Japan in the eighties, I sought out places in Tokyo – Akihabra, for genuine Pentax accessories that you couldn’t get in the states. I have always loved photography and Pentax cameras. The problem that I faced was how much things started to cost, especially the film and developing. Slowly I moved out of photography and toyed with letting it all go on eBay.
The thing that stopped me from the eBay route was the faint hope that someday Pentax would make a digital camera that would accept the wonderful glass that I had accumulated over the years. Pentax glass is quality and something you don’t let go of easily.
Well, the ist-D is that hope materialized. I bought the camera along with the extra battery/grip attachment for a trip to England I was about to take. Since I am currently working away from my home, I had my husband grab my old camera bag and we met in Washington before we flew together to England. Right before we left, I downloaded the firmware upgrade from the Pentax web site. On the plane, somewhere over the Atlantic I loaded the firmware upgrade. At 30,000 feet, over the frozen north Atlantic I clicked in my old manual Kiron 70-210mm lens and presto – BEAUTIFUL images. Imagine how cool it feels to put in a lens that is over 20 years old into a brand new camera body and it feels like they were made for each other! AMAZING! I have a Cosmicar lens that I bought in Hawaii (1984?) with the little “A” on the aperture ring that was useless on my MeSup now I finally get to use that lens to it’s full potential.
I just finished shooting a week of pictures (over 960 images) in England and all I can say is that I’ve gotten an old love back in my hands again. This camera has the soul of my old MeSup. I have returned to photography! This camera feels and acts like a regular 35mm SLR Pentax that just so happens to use digital film! I LOVE this camera.
I think the CF door is fine. No problems.
Battery life with the battery/grip attachment is GREAT. I shot images all week in the cold of England in March and downloaded each night at the hotel. I shot a fair amount of flash images and I still have TWO bars in the battery scope. No problems with the batteries.
Basically, I LOVE this camera and think it’s worth the money and then some. I think Pentax has a definite winner here and as word of mouth gets around, this camera is sure to be the next MeSup or K1k. This camera is going to make the Pentax name again. I am so happy! I’m back into Photography!
Problems:
I miss the old split image viewfinder. I liked how I could find a vertical line in a scene and focus on that. I use the Pentax right angle viewfinder attachment, and I used to be able to click it over to 2x and make sure everything was in focus. The ist-D has the image-is-fuzzy-and-now-it’s-not method. Granted, this is supposed to be an Autofocus camera, but how well does autofocus work in real life anyway?
I miss the cable release screw hole in the shutter release button. I think somewhere I can buy an electronic version of that for the ist-D, but I can’t find it online anywhere yet.
The Arrow pad may work better in a few years when it is broken in; too stiff to use sometimes. Use it along the peripheral edges with your fingernail.
Yep, the little rubber covers over the body connectors are probably going to get lost/ripped off within a year or so. In and out of a camera bag are sure to take their toll
The thing that stopped me from the eBay route was the faint hope that someday Pentax would make a digital camera that would accept the wonderful glass that I had accumulated over the years. Pentax glass is quality and something you don’t let go of easily.
Well, the ist-D is that hope materialized. I bought the camera along with the extra battery/grip attachment for a trip to England I was about to take. Since I am currently working away from my home, I had my husband grab my old camera bag and we met in Washington before we flew together to England. Right before we left, I downloaded the firmware upgrade from the Pentax web site. On the plane, somewhere over the Atlantic I loaded the firmware upgrade. At 30,000 feet, over the frozen north Atlantic I clicked in my old manual Kiron 70-210mm lens and presto – BEAUTIFUL images. Imagine how cool it feels to put in a lens that is over 20 years old into a brand new camera body and it feels like they were made for each other! AMAZING! I have a Cosmicar lens that I bought in Hawaii (1984?) with the little “A” on the aperture ring that was useless on my MeSup now I finally get to use that lens to it’s full potential.
I just finished shooting a week of pictures (over 960 images) in England and all I can say is that I’ve gotten an old love back in my hands again. This camera has the soul of my old MeSup. I have returned to photography! This camera feels and acts like a regular 35mm SLR Pentax that just so happens to use digital film! I LOVE this camera.
I think the CF door is fine. No problems.
Battery life with the battery/grip attachment is GREAT. I shot images all week in the cold of England in March and downloaded each night at the hotel. I shot a fair amount of flash images and I still have TWO bars in the battery scope. No problems with the batteries.
Basically, I LOVE this camera and think it’s worth the money and then some. I think Pentax has a definite winner here and as word of mouth gets around, this camera is sure to be the next MeSup or K1k. This camera is going to make the Pentax name again. I am so happy! I’m back into Photography!
Problems:
I miss the old split image viewfinder. I liked how I could find a vertical line in a scene and focus on that. I use the Pentax right angle viewfinder attachment, and I used to be able to click it over to 2x and make sure everything was in focus. The ist-D has the image-is-fuzzy-and-now-it’s-not method. Granted, this is supposed to be an Autofocus camera, but how well does autofocus work in real life anyway?
I miss the cable release screw hole in the shutter release button. I think somewhere I can buy an electronic version of that for the ist-D, but I can’t find it online anywhere yet.
The Arrow pad may work better in a few years when it is broken in; too stiff to use sometimes. Use it along the peripheral edges with your fingernail.
Yep, the little rubber covers over the body connectors are probably going to get lost/ripped off within a year or so. In and out of a camera bag are sure to take their toll