Here's what I'd like on the ist-D replacement, in decreasing order of importance:
#1 - FULL-TIME ISO DISPLAY!!! One of the reviews of the ist-D mentioned how polished a product it was for Pentax's first DSLR (to reach production). And this was true, for the most part. But how anyone could release a camera that hides the current ISO setting from the photographer unless the special ISO-change mode is entered is baffling to me. I want to be able to see ISO at a glance. #2 - Instant ISO change capability. It's a pain in the @$$ to have to change the mode dial every time I want to change ISO and then switch back to shoot. Minolta got it right on their DSLR: Push a button on the back and spin one of the control wheels (much like the way the ist-D handles exposure compensation). #3 & 4 - Bigger sensor and more megapixels. Although full-frame would obviously be nice, I think I could actually live long-term with a 1.3 crop factor like the Canon 1D. After working with the ist-D for over a year I think 10-11 megapixels is enough for most purposes - even large prints. Since the prints I'm most likely to print large are landscapes, I could probably get by with 8 MP. I can stitch multiple (2 or 3) shots together in many situations. #5 - A little faster writing to the memory card. Not often an issue for me, but it would be nice... #6 - Histogram on instant image review (like the ist-DS). Heck, I'd accept having the histogram show up *instead* of the image ;-) I've considered getting an ist-DS but decided that its improvements over the original D aren't worth the trade-offs. I really like the Hyper Program and Hyper Manual systems with dual control wheels. I much prefer CF cards to SD cards (mostly because of their size - I find SD cards too small). In general I agree with the review; I've found the ist-D to be a remarkably polished and well designed product. Now, some *ideas* for future DSLR's: Spot white-balance. We have spot metering. Why not have the ability to set white balance by a small area rather than the full exposure area? Aperture-AND-shutter-preferred autoexposure. That is, autoexposure that lets the photographer set *both* the aperture and shutter speed. The camera would set the exposure by automatically varying the *ISO setting*. I've wanted something like this when shooting motorsports (I set the shutter speed for panning motion blur and aperture for DOF, but still need the camera to correct for changing lighting conditions) and for waterfalls where I want to bracket without changing aperture (for DOF) OR shutter speed (for the amount of motion blur I want). This sort of feature requires improvements in sensor technology (an increase in ISO range from about 25 to 1600 or 3200) but I expect this will come with time. -- Mark Roberts Photography and writing www.robertstech.com
