>
> It seems that quite a few cameras have appeared on the market in the
> past year or so, and many offer some nice features. However, there
> doesn't seem much in the way of image improvement. I'd gladly give up
> some feature for great image quality. I'm sick of chromatic
> aberration, disgusted with the generally narrow lattitude of the
> sensors ...
The latitude seems roughly comparable to that of slide film. But at
present most of the research seems to be going into trying to get the
price down to the level that will sell enough of the cameras to pay
for further development. We have seen *one* major improvement in
image quality - the full-frame 11 MegaPixel Canon D1s. Not surprisingly
this comes from the manufacturer who seems to be selling the most DSLRs.
> And, speaking of Pentax, I've yet to understand the half-way
> useability of early K-mount lenses on the istDSLR. Dario's site
> mentioned something about them only being able to be be used wide
> open. Can someone provide definitive information on how well the
> K-mount lenses can be used on the istDSLR?
It's really not that hard - it's been explained here many times.
The *ist-D is designed to be used with "A" lenses or later, which
should be left on the "A" setting (aperture controlled from the body).
Earlier ("K" or "M") lenses can be used in metered manual mode (though
only after changing a Pentax function to allow this). But because the
body does not have the mechanical linkage to read the aperture setting
of the lens metering will be done as if the exposure would be made at
full aperture. During exposure, though, the lens *will* stop down to
the value selected on the aperture ring. This means that, unless the
lens is set at full aperture, the metering system will indicate the
wrong value. Not an insurmountable problem, but an invitation to err.
