Hi, list -- Took my new MZ-S to its first serious outing over the weekend, Brian Redman's vintage sportscar races in West Virginia. First impression: I'm going to learn to like this camera very, very quickly.
To get the negative out of the way first: As an eyeglass wearer, in bright ambient light I had trouble reading the viewfinder display at the bottom (though the exposure bar graph was usually fine). Second, even though I had set the PF not to let the leader out, somehow it managed to reload the same roll I had just rewound. First roll was ruined, but it probably was due to operator error. Didn't happen again. In fact, I love the way it lets me reload one-handed while balancing a 400/2.8 atop the monopod, and sets the ISO for me. I really like the ergonomics, especially with the BG-10 mounted. Enough heft, but not too much. As road-test writers write, "the shift lever falls readily to hand." All the significant buttons fall readily to fingertip and feel very natural to use. (Being new to both autofocus and shutter priority AE, it'll take a little longer to learn how and when to use them.) I could even use the shutter release on the grip in horizontal orientation, which might help my habit of flinching and dropping at the critical instant while panning. I'm sure I'll find some ergonomic nitpicks as time goes on (like the location of the AF-point selector), but I think that's all they'll be: nitpicks. It already feels really instinctive. Thanks, Pentax. Though I don't yet have any AF lenses, the trap-focus and focus confirmation features of SAFOX system impressed the heck out of me. Even with the big glass and a 1.4X-L mounted, confirmation would almost always let me pick up some bit of crap on the track (pebble, piece of tire tread, etc.) to set my focal zone, and trap appeared to nail the shot as a car drove into it time after time. I say "almost always" because sometimes it would fail to lock on some seemingly obvious feature like a transition from asphalt to concrete, or a section of white line, and the finder display would keep going out before I found something the sensors liked. That got annoying. Trap also seemed to work quite well while panning, provided I had chosen a good focal zone to begin with. The proof will be when the pictures come back, of course, but for now the MZ-S makes me happy. (Happy is good, because over the same weekend I picked up a ration of heartbreak: I think I trashed my pride-and-joy LX beyond repair, but that's a whole other tale of woe...) Regards, Stephen - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
