My own little *ist D review

[Arnold Stark]

As reviews of the *ist D are flying in here is my own little contribution.

I have been able to play with the *ist D pre-production model serial 
number 5645034 last weekend. I helped Boz  in taking pictures for his 
comparison with the Canon 10D (see his review at 
http://kmp.bdimitrov.de/bodies/digital/review.html), and I did my own 
little experiments, especially some resolution test. See some of my test 
shots taken with the 43 Lmited and the FA-J 18-35/f4-5.6 at 
http://www.arnoldstark.de/bilder/030914_istD_testtafellinien.jpg.
The area displayed is from the image center. Its size on the test chart 
is 10x7 centimeters while the whole test chart is 92x62 centimeters and 
fills the whole frame. The shots taken with the 43 Limitzed were taken 
at a distance of 188cm, i.e. the magnification was 1:42.7. The shots 
shown are the best ones from a series of manually (focus bracketing) as 
well as automatically focused shots (The AF of the *ist D sometimes 
"snaps" at different positions.). From the most narrow line pairs being 
resoved, I measured the resolution to be 50 line pairs per millimeter 
for both lenses at f8. This value is not bad but well below the resoving 
power of the 43 Limited (I have measured that the 43 limited can resolve 
more than 80 line pairs per millimeter on Agfapan25.). This is no 
surprise: To test the limits of the resoving power of this lens, one 
would need a sensor with 4 times as many pixels. As you can see, the 
images taken with the camera settings for  "saturation", "sharpness" and 
"contrast" each set to +1, are more pleasing than those taken at "0"

Now, beyond resolution, this is what I like about the *ist D:
- small yet rigid body that is easy to hold
- easy to understand controls most of which are easy to operate, too
- the menu is easy to understand, and selecting user  functions is easy, 
too.
- I manged to figure out all I needed and wanted WITHOUT manual.
- relatively large and bright viewfinder with lots of information which 
can be well seen.
- compatibilty with older flashes, A and F lenses.
- instant image control  (which is still new to me).
- very good histogram and full information about picture when pressing 
the "info" button.
- lots of user functions.
- image quality sufficient for computer use and prints up to 20cm x 30 cm.
- there still is more than enough reason for using my film cameras for 
big prints and slides.
- the focusing noise actually does not disturb me.

I can get used to:
- having to change the settings for saturation, sharpness and contrast 
away from the standard settings
- having to selecet the aperture from the body.
- operating the 4-way/OK controller which needs a little practise as it 
is just a little bit too small.
- plastic outer body on sturdy steel chassis.
- battery consumption seems to be normal for a digital SLR but is of 
course way beyond what I know from film cameras...

Things that are not so nice:
- AF is fast but not always accurate on this particular pre-production 
model.
- crippled k-mount:
- battery compartment door is difficult to close and looks like it will 
have to be replaced at some time.

On the topic of compatibilty with K- and M lenses I again confirm that 
in manual mode, a K or M lens (as well as a A/F/FA lens not in "A" 
position) would stop down, but unfortunately no metering is available. 
However, as one can judge the image right after taking it, one can take 
a test shot, judge it, adjust aperture and shutter speed and just take 
another (and yet another) picture -at least with subjects and lighting 
conditions that don't change.    In AV mode, with K and M lenses (as 
well as with A/F/FA lenses not in "A" position),  one gets operation 
wide-open, only. The aperture simply will not stop down to the value 
selected on the aperture ring, but it will stay wide open all the time, 
not only when metering but also when DOF previewing as well as during 
exposure. The metering is correct for wide open. To have the lens stop 
down to the selected value in AV mode, one needs to unlock the lens and 
turn it 15 degrees anti-clockwise. The aperture levers of camera and 
lens disengage so that the diaphragm stops down. In AV mode, one can 
thus have real aperture metering, even with exposure lock (With srew 
mount and manual aperture lenses one always gets this withiout having to 
unlock the lens). I have tried this several time, and it works well 
enough. However, one must take care that the lens stays in the right 
position. Others have suggested a solution for this problem.

Will I eventually buy the *ist D?

Yes!

Unless Pentax soon presents a follow-up model with better k-mount 
compatibility (it would be sufficient not to switch the meter ON when 
DOF previewing in manual and/or AV mode)

Arnold