More Good Stuff The vertical-travel focal-plane shutter provides speeds that range from 30 seconds to 1/4000, plus B for longer exposures. In Continuous Advance mode you can shoot at 2.8 fps. In 2-Second Self-Timer mode the mirror pops up and the exposure is delayed for two seconds to allow vibration die down before you make a long exposure. Rotate the main switch to the iris icon, and the lens stops down to the set aperture so you can check depth of field. Digital Stuff The new DL allows you to shoot RAW 3008x2008-pixel images, or JPEGs at 3008x2008, 2400x1600 or 1536x1029 pixels, each at three compression levels. A 1GB SD card will hold about 90 RAW images, 330 highest-quality JPEGs, or more than 2100 lowest-quality JPEGs. I got as many as 56 highest-quality JPEGs on a 128MB card. RAW produces the best image quality, but highest-quality JPEGS are fine for most uses. Pressing the Fn button on the camera back brings up an LCD monitor screen on which you can set white balance (auto, several presets, or custom for the lighting at hand), ISO equivalent (auto, or 200–3200), Drive mode and Flash mode. You can choose the color space (standard sRGB or wider-gamut Adobe RGB), via the Custom menu, and adjust the sharpness, saturation and contrast (via the Record menu). The *ist DL incorporates four digital filters which convert the image to black and white or sepia, soften it, or change the vertical/horizontal ratio. The 2.5” LCD monitor is easy to read—even in daylight. Pressing the info button brings up a screen that displays basic settings, or detailed info about the selected exposure mode. Pressing the playback button displays the most recent image, and you can scroll through all images on the SD card singly or 9 at a time, magnified, or as a slide show. In Use Featuring a tiny body with a high-rigidity stainless steel chassis and metal lens mount, the DL felt better in my hands than the DS or original *ist D did. While I found the others difficult to hand hold steady with a long lens attached, the DL somehow seemed easier to manage. And I love the big LCD monitor with its larger menu type. The controls are easy to figure out and operate. I did manage to pop the SD card door open a few times while hiking with the DL and another camera around my neck, but otherwise encountered no ergonomic problems. Autofocusing performance was very good on birds in flight—the DL acquired moving subjects more quickly and tracked them better than the *ist DS. The DL provides a viewfinder autofocus target that’s big enough for easy acquisition of the subject, but with no worries about which autofocus point to select. The DL employs release-priority in continuous Autofocus mode, so there’s minimal lag between the time you depress the shutter button and when the shot is made. You can select continuous autofocus circuit via the LCD monitor menus, or quickly by rotating the Moving Object (action) Picture mode. A nice touch is that, unlike some of its competitors, the DL allows you to apply exposure compensation in the picture modes. In Moving Object (action) mode, the DL reacted very quickly and handled birds in flight very well. With –0.5 exposure compensation dialed-in, it also handled white tones in direct sun very well. Speaking of exposure comp, the DL handled my personal digital camera bane—white birds in direct sun—very well, with -0.5 exposure compensation dialed in. If you nail the exposure, you’ll get a surprising amount of detail from shadows through highlights with a wide variety of subjects/scenes. I did get some overexposed trail shots on hikes, but that happens even with my pro D-SLR, and otherwise exposures were very accurate. Image quality was excellent at the lower ISOs, not bad at ISO 800, and usable at 1600 and even 3200. My main gripe about the DL is that, while the *ist D and DS come with two long-life (though nonrechargeable) CR-V3 batteries, which provided more than 1600 shots during our testing of the original *ist D, the DL comes with four AA alkaline batteries which are good for around 120 shots. The DL will accept two CR-V3s, or four AA lithium or rechargeable Ni-MH batteries, but you have to buy them separately—while the DL’s slightly higher-priced competitors come with excellent 400+ exposure rechargeable batteries (and chargers). Bottom line: This is a simple-to-learn-and-use D-SLR, with excellent performance, a good feature set and a rock-bottom price. It’s well worth a look, especially for the budget-minded action-photo enthusiast. Key Features • Low price • Tiny size • Big LCD monitor • Good for action shots • Nice feature set Handy Hint Press the AE-Lock button while in the Manual Exposure mode, and the camera will instantly set the correct exposure per program AE. Specifications LENS MOUNT: Pentax Kaf bayonet RECORDING MEDIA: SD cards FOCUSING: Phase-detection single-shot AF, continuous AF (Moving Object mode only), 3 AF points, chosen automatically by camera (user can choose between wide and spot AF area); AF down to EV –1 (ISO 200); manual focusing via ring on lens METERING: 16-segment, center-weighted average, and spot EXPOSURE MODES: Non-Shiftable Program AE, Shutter- and Aperture-Priority AE, Metered Manual, Auto Picture, 7 Subject Programs SHUTTER SPEEDS: 30 sec to 1/4000 plus bulb for longer exposures DRIVE MODES: Single-Shot, or Continuous 2.8 fps VIEWFINDER: Fixed eye-level penta-mirror type shows 95 percent of actual image area; 0.85x magnification; built-in adjustable eyepiece correction from –2.5 to + 1.5 diopter LCD MONITOR: 2.5” color TFT, approx. 210,000 pixels FLASH: P-TTL autoflash with built-in pop-up unit (ISO 200 GN 15.6/51 in meters/feet) and dedicated shoe-mount Pentax AF360FGZ (other Pentax flash units can be used); flash exposure comp provided; flash exposure comp from +1 to –2 stops; max. flash-sync shutter speed 1/180 POWER SOURCE: 4 AA alkaline batteries (provided); can also use two CR-V3 lithium batteries or 4 AA batteries (lithium or Ni-MH); AC via optional adapter DIMENSIONS: 4.9x3.6x2.6” WEIGHT: 16.6 oz STREET PRICE: $699.95; $749.95 with DA 18–55mm zoom lens DISTRIBUTOR: Pentax Imaging Company., www.pentaximaging.com