A great camera with a lot to offer (Pentax *ist DS)

Member Name: davidm385

Product:	Pentax *ist DS
Date:	26/09/05 (212 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lightweight and compact for an DSLR and uses any Pentax KAF lense

Disadvantages: Uses Pentax own RAW format which needs extra Photoshop download

If you're like me then your first foray into digital photography was with a simple point and shoot camera, with minimal features and a slow shooting recycle time (i.e. the interesting stuff has gone or the moment is away by the time it's ready to shoot). But having seen the results from one summer holiday with 180 plus snaps, then I decided this year was the year to get serious about getting a decent Digital camera.

After a lot of research I decided I wanted to go for one of the new and affordable Digital SLR's from the likes of Canon, Pentax, Nikon and so on, as they all seemed to get good reviews from the different camera web sites I researched with, plus I had owned a regular SLR camera previously and liked it. After much bandwidth and research I decided that the Pentax iST DS was the one for me, and duly purchased it. I have to say I have not been disappointed!

The camera looks and feels professional and very solid, yet at the same time you don't feel like you're carrying around a ton of equipment with you when you take the camera. I opted to buy the body and lens kit (18-55mm) option, so this has been the lens I used for the vast majority of my pictures. The range of preset shooting modes has meant that anyone could pick up the camera and be getting nice high definition pictures within minutes. There are a massive range of other settings for you to try and play with, but you don't need these to get out and start taking some cracking snaps. I have managed to capture some wonderful moments from my holidays this year having had the camera only for a couple of weeks before going.

The built in flash is okay, however there are flash guns available which might give better indoor results, but I have not yet been able to try these.

The camera uses the SD memory cards which are relatively cheap for 512Mb and 1 GB sizes, which I would recommend. The 1 GB card allows you to take around 90 highest quality setting pictures - if the quality settings were lower then this would run into the hundreds.

The camera comes with the Pentax software for uploading and manipulating your pictures, however I would highly commend Adobe Photoshop for post shot adjusting and correction. The camera also usefully will take AA batteries as well as the CR-V3 ones used in many cameras, which makes using simple rechargeable batteries a good option to consider.

The camera comes highly commended from me, and I would have no hesitation in recommending it to any of you looking for a bigger and better digital camera.

Summary: Feature packed DSLR with great pictures for minimum effort

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