K10D - Wish list?

Actually, it's some way out. The part in best focus is the grass and twigs right in the foreground.

G

I don't see the point of that sharpening technique. Why oversharpen something, then have to 'fade' the sharpening to get the level you want? Why not just get it right to start with (by varying the USM % value etc), and do away with the extra step?

Seems a bit daft to me, perhaps I'm missing something though...

Dan

There are lots of sharpening techniques, but USM is actually pretty good if you get the values right.

Sharpening the lightness channel in Lab mode also works well.

Generally I'm not too fond of the more complex techniques.

My understanding is that although the converter is 22bit, only 12 or 16bits are actually present in the RAW files. so a firmware update might be able to create full 22bit raw files? although they wouild be correspondingly larger of course!

lenses: yes there are very high quality pentax primes (43mm(?) 50mm 77mm etc), but of current models only the 50mm FA 1.4 is competitive on price with the equivalent EF USM canon. And the canon has faster autofocus. Now, maybe the pentax limited edition primes are better than the ordinary canons, they are priced inbetween canons fast prime USM range and their top of the line L range, nevertheless, I've been very impressed with the canon EF USM 85mm 1.8 and quite impressed with the equivalent 50mm and 100mm, and the nearest pentax equivalents are twice the price. does that clarify what I'm talking about?

the cheaper pentax lenses are either slow for their focal length, or zooms, which are also slow.

all this only applies to the current range of course - my DS was bought to take advantage of older pentax lenses, but i'm wondering about the upgrade path. I'd like to go with a K10D, if and when it happens, but the canon lens range appeals more at the moment, even though the bodies don't so much (at least not in the same price range)

Thinking about it [humour]really hard until my head hurts[/humour] a 22 bit ADC seems strange when I don't know of any image format that uses 22 bits! Most are 8/16/24/32

My thoughts having ordered a k10d is that why oh why do they now move to "special" batteries, this being the first slr from Pentax that does not use AA batteries - as far as I am aware.

This was the thing that attracted me to Pentax in the first place. Away from the hell of special batteries that you can not buy everywhere and which cost more than they are worth.

So I am disapointed by this move, but there are so many pluses, that I suppose I will have to live with the battery problem.

AA in battery grip with two extra card reading/writing slots would be a cool idea.

Firewire instead of USB would be another wish.

Latest Silky Pix Studio full version as the software that comes with the camera.

I pick up next week. Then I get to reflect on my purchase more over the next weeks.

Pentax say that different sorts of batteries with different characteristics, cause problems. The special batteries are pretty cheap, and rather better than NiMHs, so in practice it's not a big issue - as long as you're not in Mongolia.

Sorry, it's nothing like full Silkypix.

But's it's still a great camera. Worth buying the full Silkypix for.

G

On the battery issue - is it not due to the increased power requirements of SR + faster autofocus motors etc that mean you would need more AA batteries in the body than is practicable i.e. the energy density of lithium-ion batteries is better than that of AA batteries and therefore it was almost ineviatable that we would have to move away from AA batteries as camera bodies become more power-hungry?

Yes I guess that SR etc is the cause of the power issue and subsequent change to batteries other than AA.

On the other hand k100d has SR and still uses AA.

Here's my short list:

Automatic "pop-up + down" flash mode would be nice.

Wireless connectivity

Choice of different aspect ratios by cropping in camera (similar to the panoramic mode on the ZX5N

I liked the CF Card better on the *istD, like the dual card idea.