GROUP: Opinions and info regarding PENTAX IST D/DS and Kit lens - Ken

Hello group..........

Wondering if anyone has used; and their impressions, and viewpoints
(i've read the reveiws which seem positive). I'm Particulary
interested in compatibility with older pentax lens. I'must say i'm not
terribly familiar with pentax series lenses.

cheers

Ken

 

I've had a *ist-D for over a year now.

With KA-mount lenses or later (basically anything since 1983) you
get full capability (subject to lens features; you don't magically
get auto-focus with non-AF lenses , with one exception; there
are no power contacts for the KAF-2 power zoom lenses, so you are
limited to manual zoom mode.

With the older K-mount lenses (without an A aperture setting)
you are restricted to what Pentax call hyper-manual mode. This
is pretty much manual exposure mode, but with the ability to
have the camera select what it considers to be the 'correct'
shutter speed at the touch of a single button.

In my case there wasn't really much of a choice what camera to
buy; I've got several very nice Pentax lenses. But while I was
waiting for Pentax to come up with a digital body I used a few
of the other DSLRs: a Nikon D1, a D100, and a Canon EOS-10D.
The D1 stands out from the others; it's built to a different
standard. Apart from that, though, the others (and the *ist-D)
are roughly comparable; there's not enough difference for the
body to be the deciding factor when choosing a manufacturer.

 

On 30 Nov 2004 22:53:51 -0500, (John Francis) wrote:
Pretty much what i was looking for. Thanks for the info John, i'll
relay this to my friend who has pentax glass and wanted to do
digital. I suspect it will be the ist ds actually.

rgds

Ken

 

According to Pentax Sweden, the ist DS will not have hyper
manual mode. So - the old K lenses will be slightly more
cumbersome to use.


/Roland

 

According to people who actually have the camera in their hand,
though, it behaves exactly as I described with the older K lenses.
No more (or less) cumbersome with old lenses than the *ist-D.

The absence of the full hyper-manual mode just means that you
don't get that option with "A" or later lenses. If you want
manual control available with any lens, you need the *ist-D.

 

OK.

This sounds nice. I don't want hyper manual with newer lenses.

What lenses does not support manual control on DS but does so on D?



/Roland

 

A or later lenses (as noted above). You can get the restricted
hyper-manual mode by moving the lens off the "A" position, but
you don't get the open-aperture live metering you get with the
true hyper-manual mode on the *ist-D. And, of course, if you
have one of the FA-J lenses without an aperture control ring
on the lens you don't even have that option - those lenses act
as if they are permanently in the "A" position.

I definitely *do* want hyper-manual available, even with newer
lenses; there are times when I want to take full control of just
what the camera is doing. The two most recent examples were:

1) when I was shooting in low light, and had to juggle settings
to keep the shutter speed in the hand-holdable range; it's a lot
easier to set shutter and aperture, and just keep an eye on the
exposure bar graph in the viewfinder

2) shooting panormas, where I want to keep the same exposure
for multiple frames which will later be stitched together.
A few examples can be seen at <http://jfwaf.com/Panoramas/>

 

(John Francis) wrote in @panix5.panix.com:

Ehem? I must miss something here. Is the *ist DS totally automatic
for modern lenses. No manual settings at all? Sounds weird.
Either i misunderstand you or you must be mistaken. Or?

BTW -still according to Pentax's Swedish web site, it has manual
settings. All other would be strange for an SLR.


/Roland

 

... or I lost a paragraph during editing, where I commented
about the awkwardness of using the *ist-DS in manual mode
(with a single control wheel) as compared to the two wheels
of the *ist-D, and suggested that the *ist-DS was not a good
choice for someone who frequently used manual exposure modes.

 

Ahhhh! Comprende.

Then I have to take a look then at an actual camera before I buy one.


/Roland