Well, here is a rumor from a reliable source.
Pentax is in the process of setting up their own FAB to produce sensors to their own specifications. This is part of the reason they have been dragging at producing high-end digitals. I have no idea when this FAB will be in production, but would guess a time frame of one more year.
--
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
So apparently Pentax made its announcement of the *istD-S, and Dpreview.com has a preview of a pre-production model.
It takes SD cards rather than CF.
I thought it might well, because Pentax is clearly still trying to keep size to a minimum. SD has gotten pretty well accepted in Digital P&S cameras
and some DSLRs are now sporting a second slot for SD. Other than the sensor and the shutter, the card slot has to be one of the larger items in a camera.
There's no direct discussion of what you can and can't do with pre-A lenses on the new camera, but the button layout is rather different so it clearly doesn't work the SAME way as the *istD if it works at all.
As long as the *istD is still availible I can't fault Pentax for omitting pre-A lens support on its cheap-and-simple model. I'd really expect Pentax to come out with an upgraded *istD to compete in the "$1500" market with the 8MP Canon 20D and the presumed Nikon D200. Such a thing would
want a PC sync socket (which the new camera lacks) and full support for
older lenses so that all you folks out there treasuring those K18s and K85s won't buy Canon in disgust. The problem may be finding a supplier for an 8-9MP chip--this may be what's kept Nikon back too.
Unfortunately for me, the difference between a *istD-S plus a couple of SD cards and one of the "$1500" cameras that takes my extensive CF card collection is pretty minimal. OTOH I know Pentax wasn't aiming at my part of the market with the new DSLR.
DJE
-- graywolf http://graywolfphoto.com/graywolf.html
