Pentax *ist DS review

At the time of announcement new Pentax *ist DS was the lightest and smallest of digital SLRs you could get. Now Canon is releasing even smaller EOS 350D but DS still beats all competition when it comes to price (unless you count in Canon EOS 300D that is morally outdated). When I went through the technical specification it sounded all very nice. How did it come out of my 4 day test-shooting? Read on and find out.



The first impression about DS is: "Wow, that is small". To get size and weight down Pentax has switched to SecureDigital memory cards (I think all other DSRL cameras support CompactFlash that is physically twice as big). Size wise I would even compare DS to prosumer class digicams, that have small size sensor and fixed lens. Instead we're dealing with a decent entry level digital SLR that supports huge range of Pentax lenses. It has Pentax KAF mount compatible with PENTAX KAF2, KAF and KA mount lenses and even some K and 67/645 lenses, latter require special adapter.

With all the smallness going on, I wouldn't say that *ist DS was uncomfortably small in my hands (and I have average size hands). After two days of using there wasn't anything special about the body, buttons or handling to complain about. I prefer slightly bigger and heftier camera body, especially grip part, but DS sits firmly in your hand and will not slip out if held with only one hand.

Body is all plastic Correction: DS has stainless-steel chassis covered with plastic, grip is covered with rubbery material to reduce slip. Tripod screw and lens mount are metal. Overall good build quality, only OK button in the middle of navigation buttons feels sluggish. You would expect more buttons from a DSLR so to change anything you need to use combination of presses and turns. For example: ISO, white-balance, flash and shooting mode are changed by pressing FN (function) button, then selecting up-down, left-right with navigation key and confirming with OK button. Sounds more complicated and time-consuming than it really is. Everything is nicely shown on the screen and after a little practice it's fairy quick operation.

Scroll-wheel on the back is unusually placed quite into the middle. Exposure compensation button is at a very uncomfortable position.

As with all cheaper digital SLRs viewfinder is smallish but should pose no real problems for shooter without glasses. When you turn camera into portrait position you might have to move camera to see shutter, aperture and other information that is hidden to the side of the viewfinder. To simulate usage with glasses I simply moved DS away from my eyes just a little and it definitely starts feeling as if looking into a tunnel. When compared to Olympus EVOLT / E-300 (link to my review) and Canon Digital Rebel / 300D I would say that DS has superior viewfinder that works well when trying to focus manually. In fact, when using manual focus DS tries to help out and lights those focus points that are actually sharp.

Kit-lens SMC Pentax DS 18-55 3.5-5.6 complements DS with small size and gives a good impression. Zoom ring has decent width and texture and 5 bonus-points to Pentax for adding meter scale on the lens. With a little practice you'll be able to really shoot from your hip.

What surprised me about kit-lens was its ability to focus really close. Not macro of course but close enough, with some cropping you'll be able to impress your friends with macro-like photos.

The only downside

I've read some other Pentax *ist DS reviews and have not found this issue raised anywhere else but... Focusing speed is something that is left to be desired. I got a feeling that DS focuses more like compact camera. When you press the shutter it takes some time for the signal to reach cameras "brain" and then when lens kicks into action it's pretty fast process. Which actually makes me think that this can be improved with firmware updates but we'll see. Maybe better optics will help as well.

And I have to constantly remind myself that similar entry-level film cameras have similar focusing speed problems. Only difference is that for similar film camera you shell out maybe $275.49 (price of Canon Rebel) and not $829.95 which is how much *ist DS costs in Amazon.com at the time of writing this.

Switching on and waking up from standby is speedy, takes about 0.5-1 seconds so very good performance.

I cannot give any comments on battery life as DS comes with CRV-V3 lithium batteries and you have to pay extra to get rechargeable batteries and recharger. Of course using disposable AA-s is also an option but in the long run will be more expensive.

A bit surprisingly there's the least amount to say about shooting and pictures. It's actually a compliment to the camera because you know a good camera if it doesn't hinder your shooting and does not give reason to think about picture quality too much.

Writing speed to SD memory card is very good, when shooting RAW I did not notice any considerable writing times when used for normal shooting. Perhaps those who shoot sports and action a lot want something faster but good planning and pressing the shutter at the right time goes a long way. There's no challenge in 8fps and 40 frames buffer :)

For nighty shooting there's noise reduction mode that doubles exposure times but eliminates "hot pixels" that show up with long exposures giving a cleaner result. Results from night shooting are impressive but kit-lens disappoints as even with smallest aperture there's visible flare around street-lamps.



Noise at ISO 800 (DS offers range from 200-3200) is pretty good, used it on a cloudy winter day to do some street shooting and cannot complain. High ISO noise is much less visible than on Olympus Evolt / E-300 that is in the same price-point. Still, ISO 1600 is very noisy and 3200 should be used only when really no other option.

What annoyed me was the fact that DS does not auto-rotate photos shot in portrait format, don't know if it really helps to keep the price down...

Let's sum up. Pentax *ist DS is in no way better than the competition. It does not have any special features or is really above others in certain respect. But body that handles well, good menu system and good picture quality mean that this is an overall good contender in entry-level DSLR market. The only minus in my opinion was slow autofocus. As Mike Johnson wrote in his review of the same camera, it's the K1000 of digital SLR. If you have Pentax lenses, get it.