New Book on Pentax DSLRs

Available from Amazon for pre-order:

"PIP Expanded Guide: Pentax *istD, *istDS and *istDL"
Cliff Smith; Paperback; £14.95

I've ordered my copy - looks like it might be interesting, and it's a further indication that slowly but surely Pentax is getting back into the action.

This just might be what I've been looking for but I wonder whether they'll cover the D in detail or go almost immediately to the DS and later models. Only listed on the UK sites.

Anyone have any experience with the PIP books in past.

Thanks for posting john, will keep an eye out for it - maybe find the publisher's website.

I contacted GMC, the publishers, as the book was NOT on their own website and I got the following reply about a half-hour ago. Thought you might be interested. amazon.ca does have the book listed with the same ISBN but totally screwed-up the title.

Very clever of them to delay publication until after the cameras have ceased production.

G

John, any news on this book?
JC

Not a thing so far...

I saw this book on Amazon when I bought my DS just before Christmas (not that I was allowed to touch the camera until Christmas itself ....), and thought it would be useful as I ventured into digital for the first time after years of film SLRs (Pentax of course!). I can't remember when it said it was due to be published, but it was a few months off. But when I checked again a few months later, the date had been put back to October 2006. And JointComms' response from the publisher suggests that it has now been put back even further. Indeed l can't see it on Amazon UK at all now (I don't know what that means for your pre-order, John!)

Perhaps the problem is that Pentax is so busy producing new models that the book's author can't keep up with them!

Meanwhile, a combination of the manual (which I was actually quite impressed by), and more importantly simply trying things out (isn't digital great for that, v film!) means that I don't see a need to buy it even if it was ever published!

Ian

Hi Ian and welcome to the Board.

Can't agree with you on not needing to purchase it. I personally think the manual sucks and if it wasn't for people here and other fora I would be up the creek so, another reference point is always welcome.

Update: Wrote the publishers to see what's happening, and got the following reply.

Gone are the days when a camera like the LX stayed in production for twenty years. Most cameras now have a life-cycle of about six months, so a book about them is never going to recover its costs, even if it hits the shelves before the new model arrives.

G