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This camera is a hidden gem. Who says you need to spend a lot of money to actually take great pictures. Color rendition is great....
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
This camera made me fall in love with photography again. I was an avid photographer for about 20 years, starting in the early '80s, but the death of film in the face of digital and the exceedingly high price of digital single lens reflex(SLR) cameras conspired to make my interest wane over the past decade. After I acquired this camera at a bargain price and began shooting with it, the feeling camer flooding back. Sure, the *ist DL is an aging model with only 6.1MP, but it represents an excellent value in a digital SLR. It's very comfortable in the hand and intuitive to use. It's not professional grade by any stretch of the imagination, but it boasts a host of advanced features that will most definitely one to both indulge those creative urges while satisfying the need for control. The 6.1 megapixel resolution may sound a little skimpy by today's standards, where even most entry level point-n-shoots offer double that or more. But it is actually better than it sounds, producing high quality images that can be enlarged up to 8x10 inches without showing any significant degradation. The SMC Pentax DA 18-55mm kit lens included with this camera is well engineered and produces surprisingly excellent results. The *ist DL's compatibility with just about any lens ever made for a Pentax SLR camera makes it a very flexible platform and adds significantly to the value proposition for longtime Pentax users. These cameras go fairly cheap on e-bay, which makes them an excellent value proposition for budget minded users looking for a transitional camera or one to carry along they'd prefer not to endanger more expensive gear. The Samsung GX1L is an almost perfect clone of this camera (actually the *ist DL2) with only slight cosmetic variations from its Pentax sibling and often sells for a few dollars less. I'm presently looking for an affordable Pentax or Samsung DSLR to replace this wonderful camera that I got to enjoy for all too brief a time. **Important Note: I killed this beautiful camera after having it just a scant four days by trying to update the firmware from version 1.00 to 1.03 so I could use higher capacity SCHC cards in it. The upgrade appeared to go well, but the camera was totally bricked. Pentax wanted twice what I'd paid for it to repair it. With that in mind, I feel it is my duty to warn all who are attempted to perform this seemingly simple upgrade to AVOID IT AT ALL COSTS!!! You can cram almost 700 images onto a 2GB card at full resolution and you can pick up these cards for next to nothing. The little you stand to gain with this upgrade is just not worth the risk of killing a perfectly good camera.Read full review
A good camera ... a bit dated but excellent to learn dslr on a budget ... I can use my older slr pentax lenses in the manual mode or the auto functions of the earlier programed 35mm cameras ... I am having a lot of fun learning with it and a bonus I can experiment with settings befor I go back and use my older 35mm cameras which is my major focus ... cheers.
Verified purchase: Yes
A gem of a camera, easy to use and I've always preferred the CCD image sensor of the currently used CMOS.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
The camera works as expected and is a great alternative for buying a new camera. The additional camera bag is very useful.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
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