I must say I find the original premise of this thread a bit absurd. If you think Olympus got it right, and Pentax got it wrong, change system. The K5 and the OM-D are completely different cameras and systems. I'd like to see you find cheap fast glass for the Olympus.

I think the company that's got it right at the moment is Fuji, producing in the X-Pro1 a rangefinder-style camera that outperforms a Leica M9 for a third of the price.

The K-30 looks like Pentax got it right, full weather sealing on an entry-level model?

Personally, if I was buying a new camera now, which I'm not (though I'm seriously tempted by the Nex7), I would wait for the K5 replacement. It can't be far off. The K5 is a great camera, but judging by the specs of the K30 (the only thing lacking imo is the top LCD), the K3 or whatever it will be called is going to have to be pretty awesome to sit at the top of the range.

We just had 10Mb fibre optic installed, for the same price we paid fo 2Mb. Trouble is, it's slower than it was when we had 2Mb.

I haven't submitted anything to PPG since I got to 100 accepted images, nor have I even looked at it for months. The last time I voted there were an incredible amount of average and worse images. I'll go and have a look again and maybe start submitting again.

I agree with David, though, there are quite a lot of photographers with vey good images on there, many from this site, though the general standard does appear to have dropped, in common with 500px.

I have loads of manual focus lenses, but no pics of anything that fits the theme "rejuvenation"

I am away, without any of my MF lenses, so will probably not be able to get an entry in this week, but it's good to see that despite all the moaning there's a good set of entries building up.

You should try Doha...a saleman in the biggest camera shop here told me I must be mistaken; Pentax, whoever they are, are not a camera manufacturer.

Good review, and I have no doubt that the target market will be extremely happy with it. A very good bit of market savvy on Pentax's part. I don't understand the reviewer's statement about the lack of viewfinder being a good thing, but then again, all his shots were taken indoors...

The lack of an EVF means I would never consider buying one, but I don't think they were aiming this camera at people like me.

Thanks David, we have an exercise studio at home that gets good light, so we will try that out. There is also a large mirror on one wall which hopefully will increase the available light

I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on a lighting set-up for shooting family portraits? It's not something I have done before, but out of the blue I have been asked to do a paid shoot by some new friends here in Doha. I got paid for shooting pictures of hotel in Sri Lanka recently, so it's my second paid job in a month, which is rather nice! I will probably be doing this shoot in a few weeks.

My wife will be assisting me, and will probably do some or even all of the photography as she is quite good at people photography. The family are a couple and their 6 year old son.

My existing equipment is a Metz 50 AF-1, a Chinese flash of similar specs I can use as a slave, a home-made softbox (quite small), a bendable flash reflector and a square metre or so of foam material that I can use for diffusing flash. I don't have any stands or other equipment, save two tripods and a Gorillapod. I am wondering if I will have to get a flash cord to use the flash off-camera, and what other equipment I might need. I am going to Osaka tomorrow so can buy more equipment if needed, but I don't want to outlay too much as this could just be a one-off. I will make a stand or two if needed for the flashes. I am thinking about using natural light from a window with a gauze curtain too.

Any advice on what I need, set-up of the equipment, settings to use etc. would be much appreciated. I will try the set-up out before the shoot by enlisting some friends to pose for me. I also have no idea what to charge; a work colleague here who does this type of photography charges $US300 including prints, but some people who I work with who have used him have not been very happy with the results they got for that price.

Jon

Here's the place to discuss anything related to this weeks competition.