Finally happy with this camera

If I wrote this review 2 months ago I would have rated this camera very poorly, but I have learned many things about digital photography now and continue to learn making this a more pleasant experience now.

I am not new to photography. I have a collection of old cameras and have been active for 30 years using a Minolta SRT101 for many of them. I also have an Olympus Camedia point/shoot that I love for its clear usually flawless photos..great for vacation candids.

But I wanted more control over my pictures, so when DLSLRs became reasonable in price I reasearched them and elected the Pentax istDL...why? Because of its size and weight, it felt VERY comfortable in my hand. Also using AA batteries was a big plus for me. I hate propriority battery packs that after 5-10 years disappear...(I have camera that are 60 years old that I can still get film...I hate the marketing of the disposable generation)

Having a lot of photography experience does not translate necessarily into understanding all of the controls of a DLSLR. I lived with the MFG defaults for many months and tried the various automatic settings...most of which are useless. I use manual and aperature priority now. This is considered an entry level DLSLR but the manual is typical of most...they describe the adjustments/settings in dictionary terms but not HOW TO USE THEM! I strongly recommend reading "Digital SLR Photograpy Solutions" published by PC Magazine. Since reading this book I now understand how to set up my camera properly and my decent photos went from 20% to 90% since reading this book.

I am a birder. I purchased a Tamron 70-300mm zoom with 1:2macro. It works very well and is very light to use. Believe it or not, I can focus better on a flying bird than one sitting on a fence. This is the only thing that I struggle with. Auto focus is ok on a still subject with no branches in the way. But otherwise there is no good visual indication of a sharp focus. Yes there is a graphic in the viewfinder and a beep when the camera says focus is correct...but you don't know what it has focused on!! especially if looking through branches at a bird in a tree. You end up adjusting the focus ring back and forth trying to hit the best focus before the subject flies away. How I can get a good focus on a flying bird remains a mystery to me.

Overall I am now satified with the camera...except for the visual focus.