Since I already owned a lot of Pentax lenses, filters, remotes, flashes for my 2 Pentax Film cameras the K1000 and P330t, picking a Pentax digital SLR was a no-brainer. The problem was waiting for the cost to come to down. Finally the cost did come down and due to excellent reviews on Steve's Digicam pages I decided to buy the *ist DS over the D or DS2. I absolutely love this camera. I can use all my old gear and it takes very good quality pictures. If Pentax has a problem, that would be marketing. I find it amazingly difficult to find information on Pentax cameras. True, Canon and Nikon have fine products but so does Pentax. What is odd is the amount of advertising and information for those over Pentax.
This camera is fantastic. I picked the *istDS over the *istDS2 because it was rated better by professional camera people. This camera is rated very high on professional photography review sites. Those were the sites I read before buying this camera. I am pleased beyond my expectations. It works with all your older Pentax bayonet mount lenses and I have quite a few, some totally manual some with auto everything. To use the manual lenses you do have to go into the menu and select 2 for Using Aperature Ring. Digital camera technology will continue to evolve. I'll simply say that if you have a lot of Pentax lenses and desire the ease of digital, buy this camera now, and buy it over the DS2. When you buy a memory card, make sure it is the fast kind. Yes not all memory is the same. read the reviews out there you will find them on the professional photography sites. This camera takes pics in a raw format storing picure attributes in the file about all the cameras internal settings but the file extension is .PEF. The included Pentax SW is used to convert the raw format images to TIFF or JPG and adjust tonal balances, contrast, sensitivity, sharpness, and saturation etc before you convert it. Once converted you can use any popular photo app of your choice to twist and twirl it however you want. There is also a free utility out there that you can download for simple viewing of .PEF files: http://www.faststone.org/.
The Pentax remote control E works with the *istDS. The shutter release works with the *istDS but the zoom button doesn't. Set the remote mode on the ist by Fn-ok-uparrow-then select remote or remote3s for a 3s delay. You can also set a function in settings to autofocus when using a remote.
The Pentax CS-205 corded remote shutter release control also works with the *istDS.
Handy documents:
