Full Review

Pentax has always gone about the business of quietly making excellent quality cameras and lenses at reasonable prices, without marketing hype, for decades. Their long-standing philosophy of insuring that all of their older lenses work on all of their newer cameras brought me into the fold, and is keeping me there.

The Pentax backward-compatible philosophy is a key issue for me. I have found that the key element for photography is the lens. My older SMC Pentax, Rokkunor, Tokina, and Super Cosina lenses work great on the *ist DS. Just prior to purchase of this camera, I bought a new SMC Pentax 80-320 AF lens for $138 on ebay, and my action photography results have been excellent.

Other aspects of this camera that I like are an extremely bright and clear viewfinder, very good build quality, and the ability to use AA batteries in a pinch. The most often used camera settings are immediately accessible, and the camera's menu system is intuitive. Newer versions of this camera (DS2 and DL) have a 2.5" LCD, a darker viewfinder, and are otherwise no different. Since a large LCD has minimal value to me on a DSLR and a bright and clear viewfinder is essential, I opted for the *ist DS.

This camera is one of the best purchases I ever made. The supplied 18-55mm kit lens is OK, but performance with my older zooms and primes is excellent. Since I bought the camera for $699, I'll have enough money saved up for the upcoming Pentax medium format digital. Meanwhile, all my buddies that bought the Canon 20D are buying all new, very expensive lenses.