Thoughts on Pentax IST DS or DL

Johnboy2978 · Aug 19, 2005

Hey guys, I am trying to sell my Sony mavica cd500 on ebay and want to move up to a DSLR. I am interested in getting either the Pentax ist DS or the new DL primarily b/c I already have some lenses from my film Pentax cameras and a large assortment of filters. I was intersted in hearing from those of you who have one either of these (or even the IST D) as to the quality of pics it takes. I would also like to hear its shortcomings if any of you have thoughts on that.
Thanks.

photobug · Aug 20, 2005

I've had the *ist D for 19 months now. I have no complaints with the picture quality that it produces.

The DS/DL use a newer imaging sensor than the D and the pics may be slightly better than the D, but it'd be a close thing since they're all 6 Megapixel sensors.

I believe that the major differences between the DS & DL are that the pentamirror on the DL (not as bright a viewfinder as the DS) and the DL has only 3 autofocus points.

If neither of those things are of concern to you get the DL. Either will work with your older lenses. Not to put you off Pentax, but be aware that 3rd party lens makers don't always include Pentax in the mix when they release new lenses.

lazarus219 · Aug 21, 2005

Ive been looknig closely at pentax, seems like a good option- especially for value for money,

Im struggling to find lenses, im mainly searching ebay and they like for (KAF2, KAF, and KA mounts) and not getting anything really, so what should i search for to get some results?

erniehatt · Aug 21, 2005

I don't own it, but have the use of the ist Ds, and find the results highly satifactory. Ernie

Johnboy2978 · Aug 21, 2005

In the side by side comparison, I see that the DS has 11 AF points while the DL has 3. The DS outperforms the DL in continuous shooting with 2.8 fps for up 8 images while the DL is good for 5. The DL has a bigger display. But the big thing for me is the DL can shoot RAW while the DS cant.
What are the advantages/disadvantages of being able to have it totally uncompressed? I mean would that stop you from buying a camera that didn't have RAW capability?

One other thing I had a question about is memory card size. How much should I be looking for? I was thinking 512 should do me for the most part. Shouldn't that store about 130 images at 6mp, and about 60 raw?

photobug · Aug 21, 2005

lazarus-- use "Pentax lens" for a generic search. That should get you most of them, including the older screw mount lenses. If you're looking for autofocus lenses (Pentax brand) they are few & far between on ebay. Sigma & Tamron have a decent showing though.

Manual focus lenses are fairly plentiful, though occassionally outrageously priced for what they are. Here's a great site for all things Pentax.

JB- Not sure where you got the idea that the DS doesn't shoot RAW. It does, and yes, I would seriously not buy a dslr camera that couldn't shoot RAW. RAW is the digital equivalent to a film negative, what the camera sees is what you gets. No sharpening, no color correction, no nothing. The image really doesn't work until you process it on the computer.

I can get 34 RAW files on a 512 Mb card. No idea how many jpegs, I only shoot RAW.

Johnboy2978 · Aug 21, 2005

Jim, I was just looking at the dpreview.com site and the side by side comparison which didn't show that the DS had an uncompressed file type, but looking at it's features elsewhere, I see that it can do RAW. That was the big thing for me and I couldn't understand why it wouldn't list it. Therefore, I think DS is the way I'm gonna go. It looks to me like the only thing I'd be gaining with the DL is a bigger display. For the life of me I can't understand why Pentax has put out virtually 3 identical dslr cameras with a negligible difference beween them with such a wide disparity in price between the D and DS or DL.

JEFFB · Aug 23, 2005

Yeah, the DS definatly shoots RAW. I read that dpreview on the *ist DS, and I think if I'm not mistaken, that they actually used the RAW format for some of their samples, and they found a big difference in quality of the image produced between RAW and JPG. Which stands to reason... But they found that in RAW mode the quality was comparable to D70, and the Canon Rebel(not sure) but in JPG it was considerably lower. The one thing that I would have preferred would have been a lower ISO option than 200, it does go up to 3600, but at that level its really, really, grainy. But this is my first dslr, and I love it, but I have nothing much to compare it to.

Johnboy2978 · Aug 23, 2005

Well, I've got a DS on the way from B&H and I'm pretty excited. Sold the Sony and bought the DS w/o lens since I have some already, a 512 Lexar 32x card and a 8-in-1 reader. Should be here Friday!!