Yea the mouse is a dust eater here too, it only see the light when using it for 3d shooters but that's it.

Although the difference between the mouse and tablet when doing some photoshopping isn't that great, it's mostly filters you use where you adjust sliders and that goes just as well with the both of them

Photozone now has a review up link compared to the 16-45 it's a just bit less sharp but you do have the extra reach and better controlled chromatic aberrations.

I would love to see what it does with portraiture, it would be a lovely lens for that I believe

Great to hear Gwyn, too bad you're a bit busy but you can surely use your new lens to take some marvelous photos of Christmas eve.
Have a lot of fun with it

Thanks Matt, Steve & Father Ted

yes I've notice the flash icon Matt, I thought it was that he wants you to pop up the flash because of the sharpness of the image, to prevent blur by moving the camera.
It still looks like it meters just fine against the 30 secs though, just need to experiment a bit with that.

Father Ted, that stacking sounds very interesting, surely for the infrared. The K10D and up have an uv coating on the sensor so there isn't coming much uv-light trough and since the number of red sensor isn't that much they are pretty noisy.
Do you've an helpfull link for me in to the matter, it would be very helpfull?

About astrophotography, I've readed that shots taken from the Andromeda Galaxy were 200 mintes at f/8

I believe that Sunpak makes the ones from Pentax, I couldn't find their website though

The shutter is controlled electronicly by the firmware of the camera and we use the same shutter in bulb so it can handle longer exposures.
Although you're right that it would be a feature not many will need and those needed can countdown so that would be a valid reason but also the only reason why...

Thank you John, that was informative
I've looked reciprocity failure up and it was an interesting read, I didn't knew that.
With the digital age we have the problem that the sensor gets hot and increase noise and it wouldnt be so good for the lifetime of the sensor either.

I do use bulb to have longer exposure but it would be far easier if you can set that exposure time in your camera, it will save you the cost of the remote.
The theory behind the exposure time can be calculated, there is just a formula behind it so that won't be the problem.
So... what's the thing that stops manufacuters of letting us set longer exposures, is there even somthing?

The point is that it would be easier and you dont need to buy a electronic remote were you can set the exposure time for the bulb.
It's all done electronicly so they can easly change it in the frimware without (much) extra cost I believe.
I'm sure there are more users that go over an exposure of 30 seconds, so why not give us an extented exposure time?

The steps arent going so steep as you discribe Martin, after 15secs they take step of 5secs so after 30secs would come steps of 10 till a minute.

Since making some night shots and some experiments with infrared of 120 seconds exposure time,
I've being thinking why they only offer a max of 30 seconds.

Why can't or won't they offer a longer exposure time, it seems so simple to me to extent it.

This article will help you a lot link
As you can see the AF540FGZ has a far better coverage then the Metz 58 and is also more powerfull withing that but doesn't reach just as far as the Metz.
The Metz also has a fill in flash which can be handy sometimes, I use an omni bounce on the AF540FGZ to compensate that indoors.
You can't really go wrong with one of them.

ps. for a cheaper AF540FGZ you can look for the Samsung one instead of the Pentax, it's exactly the same