Labs

With a virtually identical design to Nikon's D50 (and likewise available in black or silver), the *ist DL is just as comfortable to use. It weighs a similar amount too; the body is lighter, but the four AA batteries add a considerable 80g.

As with the Fujifilm, AAs are both good and bad. Power is readily available, but no rechargeable batteries or charger are included, even at this price. If you're familiar with the *ist DS - the DL's bigger brother - you'll also be disappointed that the auto focus system only has a three-point selection (rather than 11) and the buffer size has been reduced to just five shots for JPEGs and three for RAW.

There's also the minimum ISO sensitivity of 200. It's a problem shared with the Nikon D50, but will only be an issue if you want a wide aperture at the same time as a slow shutter speed, or when the light is too bright. Another 'problem' shared with the D50 is the use of SD cards - a potential

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annoyance if you only own CF cards.

Fortunately, the *ist DL earns back points for ease of use for novices. Buttons are kept to a minimum, with all the commonly used functions - ISO, drive, flash and white balance - easily available with a push of the Fn button. It means you can't alter settings without using the TFT (an advantage of the D50), but there's less to baffle new SLR users.

We're also fans of the big 2.5in TFT, and the menus are fairly intuitive. Another nice touch is the focus distance markings on the bundled lens - the only one here to sport them. A lens hood is included too.

Image quality was beyond rebuke the majority of the time, but that's only after you've made a few tweaks to the default settings. The main problem is that the image tone option is set too high, making colours very oversaturated and leaving images with a touch too much contrast. Auto white balance wasn't the best either - colour casts were noticeable unless you use the preset or manual controls.

Noise at up to ISO 800 was almost as unnoticeable as the Canon and Nikon, and exposures were fine most of the time. However, the matrix metering did tend towards over-exposure on occasion, particularly in low light.

Overall, though, quality lags slightly behind the Canon, which has those extra 2 megapixels, comes with a rechargeable battery and offers ISO 100 and a larger burst buffer for little extra cost. The Pentax is a decent entry-level SLR, but the Canon is simply a better camera for your money.