DSLR Questions

[Platinum]

Does anyone have any experience/views on this camera?

Why do DSLRs have a 'high' minimum ISO number? e.g. my cameras lowest ISO number is 50, yet the camera above & the 350D have a minimum of 200 & 100 respectively. Am I missing something?

[paulmjg66]

Platinum said:

Does anyone have any experience/views on this camera?

Why do DSLRs have a 'high' minimum ISO number? e.g. my cameras lowest ISO number is 50, yet the camera above & the 350D have a minimum of 200 & 100 respectively. Am I missing something?

my kodak z740 goes from 80-400,set at 100 gives good bright pictures.

[beano500]

Platinum said:

Why do DSLRs have a 'high' minimum ISO number? e.g. my cameras lowest ISO number is 50, yet the camera above & the 350D have a minimum of 200 & 100 respectively. Am I missing something?

I believe it's because the sensors won't actually give you better signal to noise (cf grain on a film) in their design than those high minima. It is annoying sometimes and an ND filter comes in useful on occasion....

[_dobbo_]

The D70 starts at ISO200, much to the amusement of the Canon boys and girls! Personally it never bothered me, and I shot mostly at ISO400 anyway.

With regard to the camera, no opinion at all, but at that price I'd be looking at a D50 or a second hand 350D, just because I'd play it safe and stick with either the "N" or "C" words...

[bristol ian]

Platinum, I have also spotted this little deal recently - I was thiiiiiiiiis close to getting a D50, until I spied the Pentax... [As an aside, apparently Jessops are waiting for delivery of a shed-load of D50s and no shops have any in stock... In Bristol they don't have any!]

So for the last couple of days I've been trying to find out as much as I can about the Pentax... Which, frankly, has been tough! There doesn't appear to be a massive number of reviews anywhere and any reviews I have found, haven't been as 'detailed' as a Nikon/Canon review. Although the Samsung GX-1L is the same camera.

Cutting to the chase, the Pentax has the same sensor as the Nikon, so photo quality should be the same (RAW, jpegs will be different due to different processing...)

Pros:
Very well made, fits the hand well, light weight
Fits virtually ALL old Pentax lenses
Has a much better viewfinder than similar cameras
Takes AA batteries
Accurate auto-focus
DOF preview

Cons:
Auto-focus can sometimes be slow - low light conditions etc
Continuous shooting - only 5 shots in RAW mode! (@ 2.8 fps)
It's end-of-line - a new Pentax K100D is due sometime soon
The original DL is fairly old now
It's not a Nikon.....

I can't decide! The auto-focus and continuous shooting thing shouldn't matter too much, but you can guarantee you'll moan about it when a good shot is missed...

[V6GTO]

A friend of mine tried one recently (he has a D70) and he said it was a total turd. Said it was so slow he wouldn't be suprised if it was used to archive the Magna Carta (his words, not mine)

Martin.

Edited by V6GTO on Friday 30th June 20:13

[Zad]

Hmm, veeery interestink... My film cameras (and thus lenses) are all Pentak K fit, which would save me a huge amount (even if they are manual focus - call me a Luddite). It's a great price, but with a new model due, and the 350d's successor due in Oct, I think I'll wait because there's bound to be more price cutting on the way.

[beano500]

Zad said:

My film cameras (and thus lenses) are all Pentak K fit, which would save me a huge amount

I'd go for it! All this useless positioning about whether it's a "C" or an "N" or a "P" can be forgotten. A decent bit of glass is always what counts....