I seem to remember a couple of years ago or so, speculation that Pentax looking to explore niches were considering an astro version of one or more of their top end DSLRs...the Monochrome version was also mentioned as a possibility which we know was brought to fruition.

Astro would seem to fit the bill I would have thought going forward as another potentially successful 'niche' market. Existing rugged designs and excellent outdoor/poor weather performance would make these models particularly attractive.

Thanks for coming on the site to explain your decision Spad...would have been a lot easier to have just done a bunk and hoped no-one would notice!

Like everyone who's commented above will be sad to see you go...you've been a strong supporter of the site, especially but not exclusively with your fabulous Astro stuff.

Would love to continue to follow your journey in the astro realm so please leave us a contact for whichever site you post the most on.
PM me if this might break the site rules.

Best wishes for the future and Seasons Greetings to you and yours and have a very Happy and Healthy New Year.

Karlo

Well taken.

It's not easy to capture the essence of outdoor bowls due to the sedate nature of the sport.

Regards

Karlo

My tuppence for what it's worth...

I use a K-5IIs for shooting rowing and motorsport.

I generally use a Sandisk 32 or 64GB SD card...i've used various ones...Ultra SDHC at 120MB/s but also more recently a 64GB SDXC at 140MB/s which has become my 'Go to' card generally.

I've also used Transcend cards in 16 or 32GB capacity although with a slower transfer speed many times without issues.

I've currently got a Samsung Evo Plus 128GB U3 A2 V30 micro SD card in my K-5IIs and another in my K-3...both using the SD adaptors that came with the card and can report that they work fine. I 'won' both of these on this site for POTW and it seemed a shame to have them stuck there with them being micro SD doing nothing...but no..work great.

Now for the not so good news...the latest cards i'm using and probably I suspect the Sandisk Ultra 64GB U1 140MB/s transfer speed probably offer a level of performance i'm not able to fully utilise in my K-5IIs which is limited by its very slow internal processing speed when shooting motorsport and the like.

I'm more of a 'sniper' than a 'machine gunner' but even so I find that after about 6 or 7 shots over a 2.5 - 3 second period is enough to overload the processor in the camera and it then freezes for several seconds during which i'm unable to take any more shots and it takes sometimes up to about 8-10 seconds to display any image on the back screen at all. I generally only take images in JPEG as well...usually at highest or second highest file size and most 'stars' for quality setting. The situation would be even worse if you intended multishots at using RAW I presume.

It's not ideal but i've learnt to live with this limitation and accept it for what it is. I really love using the camera in every other respect and when i'm not shooting fast sports this limitation doesn't matter.

Hope this helps.

regards

Karlo

As per comments above.

Have never heard of it to be honest... deserves to be better publicised.

Regards

Karlo

Another great image Spad.

My imagination working overtime again though...looks like a stand-off between a pirate on the left and a demon with melted face on the right !

I'm beginning to suspect the universe has its own resident artist working on a cosmic scale.

Your's is actually more attractive Spad from a purely visual perspective in my opinion.

The impact of NASA's image is lost in the close-up detail...Eagle Nebula? Who are they kidding...theirs looks more like a chicken head. From a greater distance yours looks more believable although I think Dragon Nebula would be a better description!

I found myself asking..."is that your picture or Nasa's Spad?"

First Class.

I emailed the distributor in Poland to enquire about the VAT situation...reply posted below;



Hello.
In case of shipping to the UK we use DDP incoterms, so we pay the VAT and customs. Part of that is included in the item price and part in the shipping cost.
Regards.

I'd love one of these IRIX 150 macros but have just bought a 50-135 so will have to wait. Above info might tempt someone else though? Well spotted Spad.

Regards

Karlo

Just looked ...shipping included is about £289 to England...fantastic price if you don't mind ordering from Europe.