Pentax enters digital 35mm SLR market with *ist D

The first question will be, how does Pentax *ist D compare with Canon, FujiFilm S2Pro, Kodak DCS 14n, Nikon D100, Olympus E-1, Sigma SD9? But in many ways that is not the final question. What counts is, "do you already own lots of Pentax lenses." If you do, then you want to protect that investment by selecting a Pentax digital 35mm SLR that accepts your interchangeable lenses.

Pentax has taken a long time preparing a 35mm SLR digital camera. Olympus is another Japanese company which has been slow to enter the 35mm race. Leica is even slower. Leica, Olympus (and Minolta) have been working instead on point-and-shoot level of digital camera. Their two year delay has allowed Nikon and Canon to gobble up most of the market for pro and prosumer 35mm SLR digital cameras, with Kodak and Fuji working hard to get some of that market too.

It will be a while before the Pentax *ist and Olympus E-1 are available for serious testing, evaluation and comparison, but both are reliable brand names for entry-level 35mm cameras for serious amateurs who want to accomplish credible photography at a reasonable price.

If Konica-Minolta enters the race it will be a major traffic jam. But again, Nikon and Canon are the leaders so far. Canon and Sigma, however, are hobbled by their use of CMOS sensors. Nikon uses CCD and hence achieves a crisper image with less digital noise.

Will be interesting to see which of all these companies produces the first fully satisfactory full-frame 35mm camera with a CCD sensor. Canon and Kodak's first attempts were more successful than the failed attempt by Contax (ND), but Kodak got creamed in reviews and word on the street is that Canon's CMOS sensors suffer major noise at high ISO.

As soon as a Pentax *ist arrives at our university for testing, we will post the results.

Most recently updated July 2, 2003.