Pentax *ist
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| image by Φ 錯覺Ψ (Image rights) |
The *ist is a 35mm autofocus SLR camera from Pentax introduced in 2003. This is the last film SLR camera by Pentax and an almost identical camera *istD heralded the beginning of the Pentax DSLRs. A small camera, with lightweight (335g) and had many interesting features. This camera had a lukewarm reception, mostly because the public was moving towards digital.
This is a consumer camera, made of plastic, which uses the venerable K mount and is compatible with KA, KAF and KAF2 mount lenses. Support for lenses of the M and K series is only possible in Av mode. It uses an electronic vertical travelling metal focal plane shutter with speeds from 30 to 1/4000 of a second plus a B mode. Exposure modes include auto, picture with (action, landscape, close-up, portrait and night scenes), Av, Tv, and M modes. The finder has a 90% field of view with a 0.7x magnification. A built-in diopter can also be used with a range of -2 to +1.0. Autofocus was good for the time, but it seems now slow and noisy. The TTL meter is based on 16 segment design with a range of 0 to 21 EV at (ASA 100), an allows for matrix, center-weighed and spot modes. It is powered by two CR2 battery or with AA batteries if the battery pack BG-20 is used.
Film speed can be set for DX-coded film speeds from 25 to 5000 ISO and manually between 6 to 6400. Exposure compensation can be adjusted ± 3 EV at ½ steps. The built in flash has a GN of 11. Flash sync is at 1/125th of a sec. The motorized film transport is able to travel at up to 2.5 fps and allows for multiple exposures; timed exposures and the use of a remote trigger.
Date models can imprint Year / Mon /Day, Day / Hour / Min, OFF, Mon / Day / Year, and Day / Mon / Year.
Links
- Manual (PDF) at Ricoh Imaging: Downloads & Literature
- Review at Pentax-forums
- Pentax *ist review at PopPhoto magazine
