Strengths:Good image quality - Ergonomic design - High compatability with accessories (non-proprietary) - Easy-to-use (with expert capabilities as well) - Low battery consumption
Weaknesses:Lack of RAW+JPG option
- Inability to use LCD for record view*
- No motion recording capability**
- Battery cover seems flimsy
Posted Feb 27, 2006 - Despite having owned a half-dozen digital cameras, starting with a 1.3 megapixel Olympus point-an-shoot, I still consider myself a novice at this. I chose to plunge into the digital SLR market for an upcoming trip to Europe, and went with the Pentax *ist DL for its level of value. Reviews touted many of its features as being at--or above--the level of its competitors, at 80% of their price (more or less).
One characteristic that attracted me to the Pentax was its use of common, relatively inexpensive media & batteries, and its ability to use classic Pentax lenses, right out of the box. This meant buying a 2 GB SD card for $88 and 16 NiMH batteries for $20, instead of having to buy a 512MB XD card for the same price, and having to spend $100-$150 for the equivalent amount of "proprietary" batteries.
I was able to turn around and buy a bunch of inexpensive accessories with the dough I saved on the body (with the kit lens), and I bought a pretty good 28-200 zoom lens to go with it.
The camera is generally a breeze to use, with more preset modes than I care to try to use, and plenty of freedom, with aperture and shutter priority modes, as well as fully manual modes. The pictures are fantastic so far, and I am confident that, as I become better able to manually adjust settings, I will continue to improve upon previous shots.
Not having a RAW+JPG setting, where the camera captures the unprocessed RAW image data (at 10MB a pop) and a small compressed JPG version (say 1600x1200) means I can't drop the SD card into my PDA to manage shots while on the road. Others in this "prosumer" realm offer such an option.
The battery cover moves a lot while I am shooting. It doesn't open or anything--it just has a lot of "give" to it. This is more of a potential issue, as opposed to a current defect; it could become something more problematic.
Both the LCD and motion recording "issues" I have referred to as weaknesses appear to be "weaknesses" of the format, itself. In other words, don't knock the *ist DL when comparing it to other DSLRs for these "shortcomings", since it appears to be common to all of these.
Apparently, both the inability to preview image compositions on the LCD screen and the lack of video recording capability are attributable to the way the viewfinder/lens/CCD all interact. Since it is a literal WYSIWYG (what you see . . .) situation--contrary to the case with your average point-and-shoot, there is no intermediate point in the workflow where the lens could send a preview to the LCD.
My guess is that manufacturers could offer this, at the expense of image quality, but they have chosen against this--possibly in large part because those willing to fork out $600+ for a camera have "graduated" beyond 1) using a still camera as a video camera and 2) using an unreliable LCD representation to compose a shot.
Bottom line: I recommend this camera to everyone but the all-out tweak-happy pro type consumer.
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Rated 
A great Digital SLR at this price level!
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