Keep looking :-). I guess people just hold to their *ist's, it's too cute. I personally didn't *ist that much, sold it and picked up MZ-S instead (and just love it!), but it's larger, very solid, not as round and aimed at "professionals". The shutter is very soft and quiet, I've gotten several 1.5 sec exposures with it (placing my elbows on the table in a dark restaurant) w/o any problems. I would say so far only K-7 more or less matches the MZ-S shutter. AF drive is very fast and decisive. For me it was a huge step up. As to dimensions (in mm), 122 x 84 x 63.5 335gr for *ist vs 136.5 x 95 x 64 520gr for MZ-S
Take a look at Dimitrov's site
MZ-S