Best SLR for the money
Written: Dec 14 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Overall design, performance
Cons: Noisy, one focus point, no vertical grip
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| xwan's Full Review: Pentax PZ-1P Film Camera |
I've owned PZ-1p for over four years and it's a camera designed almost ten years ago. I've been thinking to replace it with a recent designed camera. I gave up the idea of replacing it after testing some other cameras.
The features of this camera include everything you'd expect from a professional SLR camera, yet it can be used with ease.
It's said the body driven AF is slow. I tried Canon and Nikon cameras with USM or AF-S lens, they're quiet but not lightening fast. As a matter of fact, my subjective feeling is that the PZ-1p is already fast enough. It even works very well in low light. However, it only has one focus point and you have to focus then compose. Three or more focus points would be better.
Ergonomic is excellent. Other cameras designed in recent years simply can't get closer on Ergonomic. The dials are just in the right place and the feedback of turning these dials are very good, not too tight, not too loose. Nikon F100 stole the idea but implemented poorly. The dials on F100 are just too tight (probably for the sake of water resistant) and the positions are bad. Canon Elan 7's command and quick dial are not as good as PZ-1p's. Both Canon and Nikon put buttons, dials on the camera's back are a little bit far away from your thumb, which is really a pain.
The Hyper Manual is a smart feature because you can get an exposure reading calculated by the camera any time by a push of button. You don't have to turn the dials again and again to get a right exposure from probably 4 stops away. That really encourages me to use manual more often for some creative shooting.
Even though the user's manual says it's not water resistant, but I put it along with consumer grade lenses in rain, snow and even Niagara fall. It just performed very well. In below freezing point weather, the built-in flash peg broke, so don't pop the flash when it's too cold. Everything's just fine.
It's by no means a quiet camera. Focusing, shutter, mirror, winding are noisy compared to most recent cameras. Well, the noise is not that harsh and you may like it in a SLR camera.
If you don't care the limit of having one focus point, I'm sure you'll enjoy this camera. Don't forget to get some quality lenses. Camera is just a light-tight box. Did I mention it's a whole lot cheaper than other brands with similar features?
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
xwan
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Reviews written: 4
Trusted by: 0 members
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