Why did Pentax kill the *ist D?

Picking up Mannesty's question, which deserves a thread of its own, I am also surprised that Pentax didn't keep the D going for longer.

For me, there is really only one drawback to the D, and that is the slow write speed/small buffer issue.

It would have cost little or nothing to remove the padding from the RAW files, and thus reduce file sizes and write times by a third. And it should have been possible, one imagines, to increase the size of the buffer so that, taken together, one could fire a lot more pictures consecutively.

Just doing this could have justified calling the thing a D2, and then Pentax would have had a range of cameras to offer.

Strange.

G

i remember the advert in the photographic press showing the MZS and its digital bother the MZD

so i could have a top pro 35mm slr camera and a digital 35mm slr as well i was exstatic i rushed out a bought the MZS as soon as it was launched

then i waited and waited and waited then their was trouble with over heating on the contax camera and finaly pentax dropped the camera i was devastated

the *istd was a consolation though so hopfully the new 10.2 meg will be everything the MZD ws going to be

cheers for reading
ali

well hopefully the "IST D2" will be good- as i've just spent a stack on lenses on the basis that i'll be able to upgrade my IST D body in a year or two!