I agree it is over-priced. I think there is a possibility however that the Q might end up in a later incarnation being an amazing bit of kit. If some radically new sensor is on the horizon then the one-lens-does-all approach of compacts is not going to be able to keep up with the technology. There is thus the danger of the early adopters being guinea pigs, and a ready-made client base who won't be able to resist upgrading. Pentax will already have the production lines in place and everyone else will be playing catch-up. Our maybe I am just a conspiracy theorist.

Only time will tell.

Nice scenic pictures, but the light does not do much for them. I would be inclined to "cheat" and use Topaz adjust or similar to get more out of them. #5 looks really good though, no doubt because it was taken at a shorter distance. A great portrait of rural life, and the composition is spot on.

Of the ones that Smeggy linked to, I really like the water buffalo, though it's a slight shame one of his feet is missing.

I'm not very good at guessing lenses, especially ones I don't have (which includes all of these) , but I really like the picture of the dung fly.

The boat ones are very nice, especially 10 which is a great action shot. in the bird ones the light was not your friend, and these mirror lenses seem to have very strange bokeh, which is not apparent in the boat shots.

Fantastic shots, all of them, and the second last one, with the stickleback and the water droplets, is the best kingfisher shot I have ever seen.

I visited Almudena Cathedral in Madrid yesterday, and took some pictures of stained glass windows for the first time. I was quite pleased how they came out, largely I am sure to the excellent dynamic range of the K5.

ISO 400





ISO1600



ISO400



This one was a column catching sunlight through one of the windows.

ISO800



All with the Sigma 18-250

From the reviews I managed to find, the preset lens outperforms the mirror lens by quite a margin. That's the main reason I was interested in it. Here's a link to a discussion of the preset lens with some pics, a few of which look very sharp. However, it does have a minimum focus distance of 30 feet.

The more I think about the Q, the more I have a sneaking suspicion that Pentax know something about a new type of sensor (something Ricoh has in the pipeline?), and want to get the jump on competitors by already having the hardware in place to implement it's introduction. It might not be coincidence that Ricoh have bought Pentax just as the Q is introduced. Just suppose that a completely new type of sensor is imminent. Wouldn't it make sense to already have a complete system in place to implement it's introduction? If the lenses (not the toy ones) show amazing IQ, beyond what the sensor can deal with, then my suspicions will become more pronounced. In any case, I think I will wait for Q2 before I make any decision on buying one.

3 the composition works better imo.

I was a bit surprised by that moniker as well: my ony thought is that they are trying to cash in on the lomography craze, which now sees cheap plastic cameras sold as very expensive plastic cameras...