My *ist film review

[Cameron Hood]

    A friend of mine just bought an *ist film camera; what a nice 
little machine! It has 95% of the functions of my PZ-1P, just missing 
the faster flash sync and 1/3 stop bracketing (it will do 1/2 stops). 
The auto focussing is fabulous, it is small, light, great metering (3 
types), focus point selector is awesome, and it really looks quite neat 
once you get used to it. He bought it with a new FA 28-70 f=4 and a 
used FA 50 macro (he does a lot of macro work with his current 
digital); we were looking at getting the new 24-90, but it would have 
put the system a little out of his price range, and once he saw the 
used macro he really wanted it. I do know that the 28-70 was a highly 
regarded zoom on this list, becoming a bit of a cult item once it had 
been discontinued.

    It is interesting to note that Pentax has gone in one fell swoop 
from the worst autofocus in the industry to arguably the best; all they 
really need now is HSM for speed and quietness of operation. We 
compared all of the current lines, including Canon and Nikon, and the 
Pentax won out. And it was me that was pushing him to try the other 
brands! He went in to just buy the Pentax on my recommendation only (he 
undoubtedly will be borrowing lenses off me). The only other big 
disadvantage with Pentax is the availability of rental lenses; with C 
or N, there are large stocks of lenses available for rent; with Pentax, 
there are next to none in this city (one store has a 300 2.8 Tamron 
with an adaptall mount, but that would be manual focus only).

    All in all, my friend is very happy with his new *ist, and I was 
suitably impressed; I can only think of what the next generation of 
high-end cameras from Pentax will be like! What an awesome little 
machine.

    Things are looking up!

    C.