New camera
The compressed Rocky Horror show Wednesday night was the last straw for my Nikon 5000 digital camera. Although it was my fourth digital camera and the best reasonably affordable (MSRP $799) technology at the time, I bought it almost five years ago and digital photography has changed a lot in that period. Every digital camera I've ever owned has made me feel as if I was fighting the equipment, and this is a lousy feeling even if I usually win. Wednesday night, however, the pace was fast enough so that I was losing to the camera, missing shots I knew I should have had, and I felt as if I wanted to hurl the camera into a wall every time I had to wait several seconds for it to recycle.
About two years ago, I knew I wanted a digital SLR, but could not afford a $3000 investment into what is for me a hobby. A year ago, I was looking at options closely, but still decided I could not afford $1500. Recently, when prices fell below the $1000 threshold, I knew I could not hold out much longer. Although three of my four digital cameras have been Nikons (the exception being a SoundVision, an ill-fated spinoff of Leaf), I decided that my digital SLR body had to be Pentax for compatibility with the several thousand dollars worth of lenses I have accumulated for my film system. As a result, for the past several weeks I have been looking at the Pentax ist DL, a low-end entry-level variant of the extremely well-respected ist DS. The ist DL (MSRP $799) is cheaper than the ist DS (MSRP $999), using a penta-mirror box instead of a penta-prism for the viewfinder (which also reduces the metering accuracy), reducing the autofocus array from 11 to 3 sensors, and dropping the high-speed shooting buffer depth. It turns out, however, that the ist DS is being discontinued in favor of the new ist DS2, which is exactly the same camera except with a larger LCD monitor on the back, causing the ist DS to be available on deep clearance for about $200 off, bringing it to roughly the same price as the ist DL.
So I now have a Pentax ist DS on order. There are definite drawbacks, but these are unavoidable with digital SLRs. To bring the price down, all digital SLRs under $3000 use an APS C-size (23.5mm x 15.7mm) image sensor, so the field of view is reduced by a third for a given lens; looking at it another way, the field of view is equivalent to that of a lens 1.5x longer in focal length on a 35mm film camera. For example, a 50mm lens gives on the digital camera a field of view comparable to a 75mm lens on a film camera, and a "normal" lens would need a focal length of 28mm on the digital camera. Since lenses much wider than that on film cameras get expensive very quickly, manufacturers make special digital-only wide-angle lenses with smaller image circles to reduce the cost, and I ordered the camera with the semi-standard but affordable digital-only 18-55mm zoom lens. All of the new digital SLRs have also gone over to SD media, replacing CF media which has dominated the market for years, and this means I have to replace several gigabytes of CF.
I am really looking forward to the shipment arriving.
EDIT 2005-10-31: The camera has been shipped and is scheduled to arrive on Thursday, 2005-11-03.
EDIT 2005-11-03: FedEx got the camera to me a day earlier than their delivery commitment, so I've posted some test shots.
About two years ago, I knew I wanted a digital SLR, but could not afford a $3000 investment into what is for me a hobby. A year ago, I was looking at options closely, but still decided I could not afford $1500. Recently, when prices fell below the $1000 threshold, I knew I could not hold out much longer. Although three of my four digital cameras have been Nikons (the exception being a SoundVision, an ill-fated spinoff of Leaf), I decided that my digital SLR body had to be Pentax for compatibility with the several thousand dollars worth of lenses I have accumulated for my film system. As a result, for the past several weeks I have been looking at the Pentax ist DL, a low-end entry-level variant of the extremely well-respected ist DS. The ist DL (MSRP $799) is cheaper than the ist DS (MSRP $999), using a penta-mirror box instead of a penta-prism for the viewfinder (which also reduces the metering accuracy), reducing the autofocus array from 11 to 3 sensors, and dropping the high-speed shooting buffer depth. It turns out, however, that the ist DS is being discontinued in favor of the new ist DS2, which is exactly the same camera except with a larger LCD monitor on the back, causing the ist DS to be available on deep clearance for about $200 off, bringing it to roughly the same price as the ist DL.
So I now have a Pentax ist DS on order. There are definite drawbacks, but these are unavoidable with digital SLRs. To bring the price down, all digital SLRs under $3000 use an APS C-size (23.5mm x 15.7mm) image sensor, so the field of view is reduced by a third for a given lens; looking at it another way, the field of view is equivalent to that of a lens 1.5x longer in focal length on a 35mm film camera. For example, a 50mm lens gives on the digital camera a field of view comparable to a 75mm lens on a film camera, and a "normal" lens would need a focal length of 28mm on the digital camera. Since lenses much wider than that on film cameras get expensive very quickly, manufacturers make special digital-only wide-angle lenses with smaller image circles to reduce the cost, and I ordered the camera with the semi-standard but affordable digital-only 18-55mm zoom lens. All of the new digital SLRs have also gone over to SD media, replacing CF media which has dominated the market for years, and this means I have to replace several gigabytes of CF.
I am really looking forward to the shipment arriving.
EDIT 2005-10-31: The camera has been shipped and is scheduled to arrive on Thursday, 2005-11-03.
EDIT 2005-11-03: FedEx got the camera to me a day earlier than their delivery commitment, so I've posted some test shots.