conditions... you will rarely have to use the flash on this baby. Using standard batteries is also a plus... you buy fast 15 minute charger (make sure the batteries have a high number... 2500) and away you go... the camera uses extremely low power so you are good for several days. I used this camera in Dominican republic and the pictures look amazing!
SO do yourself a favor and buy this one you won't regret it, especially if you have pentax lenses or access to them!
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Top contender in under $1,000 DSLR class; great retro-compatibility, February 6, 2006
Reviewer: Rudy "pain-doc"
Little doubt that the Canon EOS-20D [some $2000 if you add a decent lens and memory card] is king of the prosumer DSLR hill. If you want to spend less than half that, the Pentax DS or DS2 are right up there. Already owning a Canon Powershot, I looked at the Rebel XT. Yes, it sells with lens for under $1000, but what a sorry compromise; the body is a cheap-looking flimsy plastic, and not all that comfortable in the hand. Whereas the nice-in-hand Nikon D70 makes the price point by substituting a penta-mirror for the penta-prism. The Pentax, conversely, has a neat small yet comfortable stainless steel body and lens mount. DO spend just a bit more to get the DS (see later) or DS2 with the original one-piece solid glass pentaprism [the cheaper L-model uses penta-mirrors, which causes some light loss and thus a dimmer view; moreover, precise alignment of the mirrors might be susceptible to vibration].

Don't be fooled by the megapixel race; it's the sensor-size that counts. The Pentax, like its competitors, uses an APS-sized (24x16 mm) sensor -- rather than squeezing more but smaller pixels into the same area, the Pentax uses fewer (6 MP) but larger pixels, giving it a very wide dynamic range that captures more of a darker image, and with less electonic 'noise', than the 8 MP models. The tradeoff is a slightly lower (though not noticeable) line resolution on lab testing. It's the difference between packing trailers on a large lot, or building fewer but larger on-site family homes.

One of the great things about the Pentax is that it retains full compatibility with its film predecessors; so that you can use older lenses (try eBay) and retain their auto focusing and exposure features. Because of the smaller APS sensor, there is a 1.5X focal length multiplier which is great for tele lenses, but might require a more expensive wide angle lens. A pleasant surprise too is the excellent factory software support. You can download a firmware upgrade for the DS, for instance, to turn it into a fully functional DS2 equivalent (except for smaller LCD monitor). To make that even sweeter, you can download the DS2 manual so that the instructions follow the script. On that topic, my biggest quibble is with the literal (at times even inscrutable) Japlish translation - particularly irksome when trying to figure out some murky menu abbreviation.

The software - upgradable by a simple download - is superb and even includes a PhotoShop plugin for the RAW format (not needed if you keep your PhotoShop plugins updated from the Adobe website). As I shoot a lot of RAW ('digital negative') pictures I particularly prize Pentax' PhotoLab which, in version 2.1, actually provides more accessible image control (including batch processing) than does PhotoShop. Well worth considering too are the batteries: rather than a proprietary monolith, you can use either AA or CR-V3 batteries, and in either one-use or rechargeable form.

All told, I am delighted with my purchase: solid body, high compatibility with older film components (lenses, flash, remotes, macro extenders) and georgeously rich images.
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 Mechanics and optics are great, the software currently a bit limited, December 27, 2005
Reviewer: EB
I chose this camera because I've got a lot of money invested in Pentax-mount lenses, and it works just fine with them (though obviously autofocus and other features don't work with the older lenses). The camera feels solid in your hands, the LCD screen is bright and sharp (note that it only works for reviewing images, not composing them), the automated features seem reasonably well thought out, and there's a manual override for pretty much everything if you prefer not to let the camera make the decisions. And I'm very pleased with the pictures so far.

One disappointment was that the RAW image files this camera produces don't seem to be compatible with iPhoto, Photoshop Elements, or Photoshop (at least not the versions I have), and I've read on forums of other users experiencing this problem. I imagine this will be resolved by a software update from Pentax or some public-spirited soul, and the workaround is to set it to generate JPEG files, but in the meantime it's a limitation for me.

The second disappointment is that the SD card I bought (none is supplied if you buy only the camera body) stopped speaking to my computers (all Macs) after I formatted it in the camera; it still speaks to my PDA--go figure. I'm not sure this is the fault of the camera, but I mention it here for the record in case it turns out that others experience similar problems.
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 Best buy for a compact D SLR with large 2.5" LCD, October 13, 2005
Reviewer: Joseph Ogiba "jogiba21"

After four point and shoot digital cameras this is my first D SLR and it works great with the Pentax lenses I have for my PZ-1p and other Pentax SLR's. My first film SLR was the Canon Pellix QL in 1966 but I switched to Pentax after purchasing my first Pentax 6x7 in 1974 and have used Pentax 35mm and 6x7 film cameras ever since.

I tried the FA 50mm f1.4, Sigma AF 15mm f2.8 and Tamron AF 28-300 so far and they work perfect with the new *ist DS2. I used the Sandisk 1GB Extreme III SD card that is rated at 20mb/sec for both read and write. I also use an Epson P-2000 40GB multimedia storage viewer that works great with the 1GB SD card but not my 2GB Sandisk Ultra II SD card so I hope Epson comes out with a firmware upgrade so it can work with 2GB SD cards.

It looks like the Pentax DL and DS2 are the only D SLR's so far with 2.5" LCD and SD card slot. I have the Pentax AF500FTZ flash with the TR Power Pack II that should work great with the DS2 but the new AF540FGZ flash came out at the same time as the DS2 should work better since it has advanced P-TTL auto flash .

The shots I did so far were right on the money for exposure and reviewing the shots with up to nine images at a time on the 2.5" LCD is great.

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