New low price in Australia!! ist DS - $997

[jeisner]

Large advert taking up back page of MX magazine...

Pentax ist DS with Sigma 18-50mm now available from JB Hi-Fi at the new Melbourne city camera store (next to Michaels) for only $997...

Makes it the cheapest DSLR by a rather large margin I think... I wonder how the new (supposed to be cheaper ist DL) is going to be priced when released... Why buy a prosumer with DSLRs getting soooo cheap...

[luke71]

Hi there Jeisner,

Yes my girlfriend and I noticed that price at JB-HiFi. Now we are about to buy a Dslr. We are going to travel around Europe and while we do, learn photography. We were about to buy a 350D for $1550, New, with a 300mm lens(Thru a friend that works somewhere). But have seen that price and ...

Were those your photos on Pbase and were they taken with a DS? They look great. We're thinking maybe the Ds as it's a lot cheaper, but we just don't know.

I'm going to post a question in "Which Camera"

[jeisner]

Were those your photos on Pbase and were they taken with a DS? They look great. We're thinking maybe the Ds as it's a lot cheaper, but we just don't know.

Yes, except 4 photos which I labelled as taken with my film camera the rest were all taken with the ist DS.. The DS is a lot cheaper in Australia as CRK the australian distributor is really trying to push it here and price aggresively. In US it is around the same price as the 350d and in Europe the DS is a lot more expensive, Pentax users in Australia are rather lucky ;-)

I'm going to post a question in "Which Camera"

Well I'm sure the Canon crowd here will swamp your post ;-)

My only advice is to remember that you are going to use the camera not them (or me for that matter). Go into a store and feel the camera look through the viewfinder, and take some snaps around the store... All the current crop of DSLR produce excellent photos which means it is really up to your personal preference..

Good luck...

[MatH]

Here *Ist DS costs 1000$ since its release 8 months ago Reebl XT is actually 10$ cheaper.

[jeisner]

Pentax have been rather bad with their pricing in Europe from what I hear


BTW... Rebel XT is $1,699 here so the DS is just over $700 cheaper... Even the 300d is $1299