Almost got a Pentax Ist DL

[Astroman (Andrew Wall)]

Well I had an interesting day, went out this morning with a deposit on a new Pentax IstDL digital SLR camera Twin lens kit., to put on lay-by, came home, the wife took one look at the receipt and told me proptly to return it I spent the next half hour trying to convince the shop where I bought it from that I needed to cancel it. Needless to say I was in the bad books for a while.

Don't blame her actually, the repayments were about $100 per week, and she wants a new lounge suite. Gotta obey the one who manages the cash. Still had a great time playing with several different brands including the Canon 20D and Nikon D70.

Another lesson learnt, never dive into something that your wife isn't 1000% behind you. Guess what I am doing next week... looking for lounges.

Reason for going the Pentax, well out of all the cameras I looked at the Pentax had the largest viewfinder out of them all, the 2.5inch screen looks good, although they could have gone a little higher in the resolution of the LCD screen. I am still looking at the 350D though, but if I can get the 350D with twin kit for about $1100 I would be happy.

Still have to wait.

[acropolite (Phil)]

Andrew, sounds like you need Strikers new book, 101 ways to decieve the wife....I would suggest syphoning some cash off each week in to a slush fund until you have enough to buy....You could also try sulking for the next couple of weeks.....

[cventer]

If your intention is astrophotography then do yourself a BIG favour and get a Canon DSLR. 350D or 20D will all do the job nicely.

There is more software, larger community using them and more aftermrket parts eg hutech front filters etc.. for Canons than any other camera.

PLUS they still have lowest noise.... The viewfinder means nothing when doing astro work so its not a selling point if thats your intention.

Best Regards
Chris Venter

[h0ughy (David)]

Originally Posted by cventer

If your intention is astrophotography then do yourself a BIG favour and get a Canon DSLR. 350D or 20D will all do the job nicely.

There is more software, larger community using them and more aftermrket parts eg hutech front filters etc.. for Canons than any other camera.

PLUS they still have lowest noise.... The viewfinder means nothing when doing astro work so its not a selling point if thats your intention.

Best Regards
Chris Venter

Unfortunatelly Chris is right, but for a good general purpose camera you went the right way.

And to get a devorce, and the "assets" slammed in the drawer you also went the right way

[33South (Chris)]

Originally Posted by h0ughy

Unfortunatelly Chris is right, but for a good general purpose camera you went the right way.

Couln't agree more, decided the DS was the best value for money when I bought mine at the start of the year and l havent changed my mind.
Saying that, at the time astrophotography wasnt a consideration, but based on the few astro-snaps Ive taken I believe its quite capable of taking acceptable astro-images at least for the beginner or cash challenged.

However once bitten it becomes an obsession and I have a sinking feeling that I may HAVE to invest in a Canon (body only) one day.

[Stephan]

I have the Pentax DS too. Why? It is a small all-round camera. The noise level is very much the same as the one of the Nikon D70 (raw images) and it was half the price of the Canon 20D. But the Pentax DS has two advantages over the Canon 20D and the Nikon D70.
1.) It has a spot meter.
2.) It light meter works with any lens (M42's etc.)/telescope. That makes things easy when you take a picture of bright objects like the moon. (through a telescope)
But of course the noise level is much lower on the 20D.

If I had more money to spend I would go for the most under estimated camera, the Konica/Minolta 7D. The noise level is lower than that of the 20D and it has the same light meter properties as the Pentax. The build in image stabilizer saves money when buying lenses.