Found similar issues a while back. I had uploaded a pic of the sensor arrangement on my camera. I was a tad surprised at the size and arrangement of the sensors.

It turned out that the center of focusing sensors on my K10D is not exactly in the center of the focus screen. I now focus at the lower left of the circle and my photos are spot on.

I have seen it mentioned elsewhere to be sure the little vibrating hand symbol is seen in the viewfinder before taking the shot.
This can take a second to come up and apparently the shake reduction hasn't initialized until this symbol is on.
I haven't tested if that really makes a difference or not.

Not sure you have to worry about it to that degree.
Most of the functionality in Photoshop is done behind the scenes in Lab mode. So conversions are likely being done anyway. (adjustment layers probably help minimize this a bit by performing a lot of the mods in an intelligent order... one would hope)

Although you probably don't want to do repetitive conversions for no reason, you're probably doing so to make changes to the image that will FAR outweigh any rounding errors that might be introduced from the Lab<->RGB conversion itself.

In general I wouldn't worry that much about it.
If you're doing a lot of mods, work in 16 bit mode. When you convert back to 8 bit for viewing/printing those rounding errors wont make a significant difference (unless your performing thousands of conversions)

RAW processing is different than Photo editing.
In general the settings may be done at any time, and the RAW processor should do them in an intelligent order.
I don't think it really matters when you perform noise reduction or any other action.
Although there is a correspondence to how much sharpening you apply for various final image sizes. You may want to do this last for your own visual cues on the final image.

Hate to go into the archives, but...
Taken about six+ years ago with Pentax ZX5, if I remember correctly.

Must be a popular event coming up. Similar topic just a few days ago...
https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5949

Oddly I have a similar problem. Flash was working fine recently on both my K10 and my istD. Had to send the k10D for repair, but now the flash doesn't work on my istD.

I'll have to bring the flash to the shop and see if it will work on another body.
Unfortunately the SB mode trick didn't help. For me both the AF360FGZ and AF540FGZ stopped working so I think I have another dud camera in the matter of a week. Argh!

Anyway, if a solution is found other than bum equipment, I'd be interested in hearing if you get it "fixed". (I have to wait for one camera top get back from the shop before I send the second one in)

Argh! Well aware of that , but like I said, my head wasn't quite awake yet. At a flash duration of 1/20000 you would need 5 pulses for every 1/4000 second slit of which there are about 22 sections in each full frame at the 1/180sec sync speed. You would probably need 100+ pulses in a worst case scenario.
Still at higher power, the longer flash duration should reduce that count.

Just for the sheer amount of power required and the recharge time involved, I find it hard to believe the flash could successfully pulse 20 times.
20 pulses would require extremely low output. Probably too low to be of much use.

The flash duration must be considered. The manual states that the lowest output of the AF360FGZ, for example, has a flash duration of about 1/20000 sec. Full power flash duration is about 1/1000 sec.

My brain ain't quite awake yet (it is still early for me out this way), but this lowest power flash duration of 1/20000 would require 5 pulses to cover 1/4000 seconds, correct? A higher power flash from the AF360FGZ would result in a longer flash duration and therefore require even fewer pulses.

Correct, unfortunately. Miss that feature from the istD which could handle the wireless HSS with the pop-up flash.