Pentax news: 10-17mm Fish-eye, firmware update
Pentax has made a couple of big announcements in the last two days. To
recap:
Yesterday they announced a new wide-angle digital *ist D mount lens.
Today they announced a firmware upgrade for the *ist DS
The PENTAX DA FISH-EYE 10-17mm F3.5-4.5 ED [IF] is…just about exactly what is says it is: a 10-17mm, f/3.5-4.5 IF zoom with 100°-180° angle of view, built for Pentax D mount digital cameras. For $580, it should be a pretty popular choice among the architectural crowd and its minimum focus distance of 5-1/2��? should make for some interesting macro work, as well.
The firmware upgrade for the *ist DS should also make for some happy shutterbugs, bringing a couple of features that, well, really should have been there in the fist place—graying out unusable menu items and Auto ISO—as well as several features that really extend the cameras functionality:
- ��?Continuous AF��? mode has been added to the AF settings in the Record Mode menu.
- ��?Auto ISO��? has been added to the sensitivity modes.
- ��?AE-L button on M��? has been added to the Custom Function menu. If selected, AE-L button provides automatic
exposure while in manual exposure mode.
- The effect level of the digital soft filters can now be selected from weak, middle or strong.
- Dutch and Swedish have been added to the language options.
- A sample picture will now be displayed in the LCD monitor when selecting Picture modes.
- Unavailable menu items will now appear in gray.
All of this is pretty exciting stuff, and if I were a DS owner, I’d be pretty happy today.
