Matt,

Great pointer, this sure helps, thanks!

Cheers,
Joerg

Does anyone know where I can get hold of the specs of the RAW file format of the *ist D or *ist DS? Would I be contacting Pentax directly? Companies like Adobe get this stuff for their Photoshop development. Will Pentax share this with me too?

Cheers,
Joerg

Have been looking into the available primes again and I now almost wonder why I nearly went astray.

The limited edition lenses 31/1.8, 43/1.9, 77/1.8 seem to deliver outstanding picture quality. The 50/1.4 is about 77mm in 35mm format equivalent. The 20/2.8 could possibly make a nice moderate wide angle lens for landscapes and the like. So why did I think of something else than this? Again thanks George for raising this point.

What's the difference between the DFA and the FA lenses? There are 50/2.8 and 100/2.8 macro lenses both in DFA and FA. Pentax say the DFA is good for both classic and digital photography but it all sounds very much like spiel to me. Experiences anybody?

I am not quite 100% sure yet whether I will cave in now and go out to buy the *ist DS. But if I do, I think I'll go with primes again, as I did in analog photography.

Cheers,
Joerg

Thanks for the pointer!

Cheers,
Joerg

The Tamron is F/2.8 also and the optical quality of it seems rather good (I admit this is hearsay, have not seen it myself). I cannot make statements about the build quality as I have not handled the Pentax lens.
Yes, you do have to cherry-pick. And that was one of my original points/questions -- am I free to choose 3rd party lenses or am I likely to run into problems such as incompatibilites?

Cheers,
Joerg

Oh, good to hear.
What a bummer. So how do I find this out then? If I hold the box in my hand, does it have a 'Made in China' or a 'Made in Japan' sticker on it? That would still leave me with the problem of finding a dealer with the lenses in stock.

Oh no no nooo, this is all too much. Should I just stay analog? But a working digital setup is so convenient and that marvellous experience of immediacy. No wait for the lab.

Bohoooo.

Good luck.

Cheers,
Joerg

Oh I see.
I had not heard about any systematic underexposure problem in a number of reviews both on-line and in a magazine.

Good point. Again thanks for sharing.

But the trying out bit is where I might have a problem. The dealer I found here in Darmstadt, Germany can get me the lenses but has not got them in stock for the Pentax mount. Only Nikon and Canon.
With my analog SLR I only use primes. And as fast as I can possibly get them: 25/2.8, 50mm/1.4, 85mm/1.4 and 135/2.8. This is just great. The 50mm and 85mm are my favourites, also focal length wise.

Now, if I try to get lenses like this for the APS size sensor, I need something like a 55mm/1.4 and a 33mm/1.4 and they are hard to come by. No?

You have a point. I might have another look into available primes. This would not be working out as a cheap (or even affordable) affair... So I wonder: is digital photography worth all this for me right now or should I go for solid quality budget zoom lenses (as mentioned in my original post) for the time being and possibly upgrade later.

I also wonder whether (and when) Pentax (and others) will widely deploy full frame sensors such as the ones in the top-of-the line Canons or Kodaks? Ever? Zoom lenses are more flexible in this respect, if you see what I mean.

Cheers and thanks for sharing your thoughts,
Joerg

I am considering a *ist DS. I don't particularly like the range of lenses Pentax offers. I'm after fast lenses as I am not fond of flash photography. The smc 28-70/2.8 seems rather bulky and expensive compared to good 3rd party offerings.

So this is what I have in mind:
- *ist DS body
- Tamron SP AF 28-75mm F/2.8 XR Di LD Aspherical (IF) Macro [this one got rather splendid reviews it seems]
- Tamron SP AF 17-35mm F/2.8-4 Di LD Aspherical (IF) [this one doesn't seem to be quite as good as the above, but still OK]

And possibly later at some point (when the money might have grown back :roll:
- Sigma 70-200mm F/2.8 EX APO IF

Now in the thread about the underexposure problem with the camera, George Lazarette mentioned the following:

> Are you using third party lenses?
> (Some lens chips are incompatible -especially Sigma's)

What's all this about then? Where can I find out more details? It is the first time I hear this.

And knowing that I cannot reliably use 3rd party lenses would be a definite show-stopper for me. Then I'd have to wait for an EOS with spot-metering or so.

Would be such a bugger. The *ist DS is one of the very very few digital cameras I handled that felt like a proper camera, just take that aperture-stop-down-lever -- doesn't it make your eyes glaze over?

Cheers,
Joerg

P.S.: this issue of underexposure worries me too -- it's a lot of money out of my pocket and I would want the camera to work as advertised.

I was looking at the SanDisk Extreme III SD cards (1GB, 133x).
Am I wrong here or does the *ist DS have an automatic mirror pre-lockup when used in the 2 second self timer mode? The PDF manual of the *ist DS (got it off the Pentax web site) says so at least.

Cheers,
Joerg

Regarding the *ist DS having only one dial, can the aperture control ring on lenses be used to set the aperture or do lenses always have to be in the A setting? As old lenses can be used, I'd think it should be possible to use the aperture ring, no? 1/3 F-stops would not possible with this, right? Not that this bothers me much.
From a review in issue 02/2005 of the German magazine 'Computer Foto' I understand that noise seems better controlled in the *ist DS compared to the *ist D and also to the EOS 300 and D 70. Has anybody been able to verify this?

Cheers,
Joerg