Pentax *ist D SLR Delayed Until Late August

Pentax Japan has now officially delayed the launch of their new *ist D digital SLR interchangeable lens camera until "late August" due to delivery problems with some components. Pentax had previously announced a July delivery date. Many digicam makers are suffering from similar parts shortages due to the SARS breakout in China and excessively high demand for imagers and other digicam components being used in all sorts of new consumer products.

We certainly hope that Pentax can meet the new delivery date as their last digital SLR camera was scrapped before it became a reality. This was probably a smart move on their part seeing as how the market prices were dropping rapidly for these cameras thanks to Canon's D30, D60 and the Nikon D100. The first Pentax dSLR would have been priced too high so they went back to the drawing board and came up with the *ist D which looks to be a great camera at a much better price point. Time will tell, check back in August or September as we should have looked at one by then.