With a street price under $800 including an 18-55mm zoom lens, Pentax's third digital SLR offers surprisingly good autofocusing performance and dynamic range, and incorporates a host of features including a depth of field preview and even a mirror pre-lock. Designed for the photo enthusiast who wants to move up to the performance and interchangeable lens versatility of an SLR, the new *ist DL is a capable camera that will take that user as far into serious shooting as he or she wishes to go.

Like all Pentax D-SLRs, the *ist DL provides 6.1-megapixel resolution and a 1.5x "crop factor," but it has a larger LCD monitor than the original *ist D or the *ist DS, a very easy-to-read 2.5". The DL records images on the SecureDigital (SD) memory cards common to consumer digicams, rather than the larger CompactFlash cards common to many digital SLRs.

The DL's AF system utilizes the Pentax SAFOX VIII sensor, like the *ist DS, but with 3 autofocus points instead of 11. You can choose between all points or center-spot autofocus, or let the camera pick the most appropriate point. I found letting the camera do it worked quite well. As with the DS, there are two autofocus modes: Single-Shot, and Continuous. But where Continuous autofocus was available only in Moving Object Picture mode with the DS, you can choose it in any mode with the DL. You can also focus manually by rotating the lens' focusing ring. The DL has a penta-mirror finder rather than the DS' glass penta-prism finder, but I found it easy to focus manually when necessary.

The *ist DL shares the DS' three metering modes (16-Segment, Center-Weighted, and Spot). I found the 16-Segment default so accurate that I rarely used the others.

A variety of picture modes automatically set camera and digital functions for shooting such subjects as portraits, landscapes, close-ups and action. For the true novice there's Auto Picture mode, which automatically sets the appropriate picture mode for the situation at hand. For the serious shooter, there's Nonshiftable Program Autoexposure, Shutter- and Aperture-Priority AE, and Metered Manual. I did most of my test shooting in Moving Object (action) Picture mode, and Program mode, with very good results. Other exposure features include ±2 stops of exposure compensation (in 1/2- or 1/3-stop increments), autoexposure-lock, and three-frame automatic exposure bracketing.

The built-in TTL autoflash unit (ISO 200 guide number of 50.7 in feet, 15.6 in meters) covers the field of view of an 18mm lens (equivalent to 27mm on a 35mm camera). Flash modes include Auto, Manual, and either of these modes plus redeye reduction. Rotating the mode dial to the No-Flash symbol prevents the flash from firing, regardless of light level—handy in situations where flash use is not allowed. You can apply +1.0 to -2.0 flash exposure compensation when using the built-in flash.

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