*istDS - MY first test shots

[tijean]

Well, much to yawn inducement of the forum, I posted some test shots that got out from the preproduction Pentax *ist DS. Well, now I have my own to post.

http://www.apt131.com/04-1204-roanoke/

This was my first day out of the house with my new toy, wandering around Roanoke, VA. All of these were taken in "natural" mode (shapening, color saturation turned down for maximum detail), using shutter priority, aperture priority, and manual. I haven't used the presets much, as I am a control freak.

I have the night shots uploaded at full resolution elsewhere but they were taken with a bad lens, setting I regret, and a broken tripod so I think I will save full resolution samples for later - when I have some that do some justice to the camera.

[Lionheart]

Very nice series. Good composition, sharpness, color rendition and saturation. Looks like the *istDS is a winner. Now if they could come up with a better name.....
There is hope for pentaxphiles after all. And Minolta is back too. All good, it means price wars are ready to begin.

[Macbook]

Which lens were you using with the *istDS?

[peted56]

Awesome, I just picked up my *ist DS today and have just read through the manual and taken a few shots of the kids.

What format are you shooting RAW or jpeg? I would like to do some shooting in raw format but although I can see the files with the Pentax software I would prefer to work in Photoshop but cannot find a RAW plugin. Any ideas.

Thanks.

Pete D

[tijean]

Macbook > Most of those were with the el cheapo 35-80/4-5.6 that I pulled off of my dead ZX-10. One was with the 100-300/4.5-5.6. I should've gotten the kit lens with it, if only for price reasons, but am a prime freak saving up for either a 24/2 or 31/1.8 limited.

Pete > Those were all shot in *** jpg. RAW is too space restrictive for me right now (1GB of space and I am a bracketer). I will start playing with RAW once I have the chance to pick up more memory.

All in Av mode, if I recall, and all in 'natural mode' - if I remembered to set it.

The Photoshop RAW plugin for the DS should be available on the Adobe website by now (also works in Elements 3.0). The Pentax software is useless. Lab is so unstable that it is unusable to me.

[peted56]

The Raw plugin is still not available. So it is a bit pointless shooting Raw until Photoshop supports it, as has been said the Pentax software is pretty much useless, it at least is stable for me.

[Photo-John]

The Raw plugin is still not available. So it is a bit pointless shooting Raw until Photoshop supports it, as has been said the Pentax software is pretty much useless, it at least is stable for me.

BreezeBrowser has a RAW converter available. Plus, if the camera has a RAW+JPEG capture option, then it's not pointless to shoot RAW. I always shoot RAW+JPEG. Most of the time I only use the JPEG files. But I've got the RAW files, if and when I want to use them. Mostly I just use them if I'm going to send something for publication or I need to make a large print.

[peted56]

Agree that if there was a chance that I would be sending them for publication or if there was a chance that I may want a large print then I would consider shooting in RAW.

Just remember that this is not a professional camera and will be purchased and used by amateurs that want a bit more, the RAW + JPEG option is not available in the *ist DS so I would think that JPEG only will suit most people anyway, and use must less space and in my experience with the camera will require little post production work. I know that when I am travelling I will at least for the moment only be using JPEG mode, perhaps when I get an X-Drive or similar I will consider taking more shots in RAW mode when I am away from home but not yet.

I am not that interested in buying another software package if I don't have to thats for sure.

Cheers.

Pete D