"The Pentax *ist DS2 ($750 street, body only) may be the company's newest digital SLR, but it falls well short of the standard set by its counterparts. Aside from a large LCD screen and its ability to run on double-A batteries, which is convenient, we didn't find much to get excited about.
In the incredibly competitive world of D-SLRs, manufacturers must create nearly flawless devices. Pentax did a much better job with previous D-SLR models. Given the unimpressive performance and image quality of the Pentax *ist DS2, we think most competitors, including the Canon Rebel XT, the Olympus Evolt E-500, and our present Editor's Choice, the Nikon D50, are better buys. The DS2 may be a new D-SLR model, but it's no model D-SLR."
