Looks pretty good to me, slight green and purple areas in the f4 shot I would suspect to be longitudinal CA.

many thanks for the pics too, sorry not to reply earlier, my pc at work doesn't show the images - photobucket is a blocked site !

apologies - replied in haste and had K20 on the brain !

i have a mastercard, i just phone them up b4 a trip, they log it into their system with the dates away, and I have no problems.

When I didn't do this I had hassles at the airport hiring my pre-booked car.

online purchases usually come up with the mastercard securecode thing, I enter the data, sale goes through, no problem.

cheaper than paypal's excessive charges which are basically double the normal retailers cc charges.

'nuff said

for the OP : as for royal mail, they're excellent, wouldn't use anyone else, if parcel is delivered when I'm out, it goes back to the depot, they leave a card informing me, I collect in the evening after work, no problem. With Parceforce you have an option to designate a local postoffice for delivery if you're out, a small fee is charged but imho it's worth it for the convenience.

Other couriers are an absolute pain, one purchase I just cancelled because I would have to travel 20 miles at my own cost to collect it, now I always demand delivery by royal mail, most online companies I have used will do this for you if you ask.

anyway, just my 2d worth

I'd be interested to hear your views on K10 vs K20 with the DA*200 if you have an opportunity

hmmm, useful link, thanks, a debatable point it might seem - this is what I was thinking of as purple fringing
http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/Glossary/Optical/chromatic_aberration_01.htm

I think photozone is measuring lateral CA as shown at the bottom of the page in this example http://www.photozone.de/pentax/134-pentax-smc-da-16-45mm-f4-ed-al-review--test-r...

how they measure fractions of a pixel on photozone I don't know !

Yes I think PF will depend on the sensor so results will probably depend on the model (pehaps why D TONG and nathanever82 love their DA200s)

Hi Stefan, the link provided does not refer to purple fringing, only lateral chromatic aberration, for which neither lens could be described as bad, you'll only see it if you pixel peep hard on the 60-250. For CA even that 'dark soul' (photozone words) the 16-45 isn't that bad in practice and if noticeable it's easily corrected in PPing (silkypix)

In my experience with K10D it is easier to get PF with the 200 than the 60-250 in high contrast situations, but pretty much all lenses can be pushed into a corner where there will be some PF evident. I don't know if the results would read across to K20 or Kx as they have different sensors. It is my impression that PF is also dependent on the focus adjustment on the K10, being significantly worse if there is BF or FF. I'm hoping I can get some free time in the next 2 or 3 weeks to do some tests to prove it to myself, otherwise I'll have to retract that assertion! My practise with the 200 has been to underexpose by half a stop and I found this reduced any PF.

As to the OP original question, it depends what you will use it for. My gut feeling from doing some quick n dirty test shots in the shop with the DA300 is that you will get a noticeably more contrasty result from the DA300, I drool over it but cannot justify the purchase presently.

I have a 1.7xTC and DA200 however the TC is not in pristine condition but results are more than usable For flexibilty get 200+TC, optically get 300 if you're obsessive about IQ, but bear in mind that for moving wildlife e.g. whales surfacing, it's quite tricky to get camera on the subject due to the narrow FoV with either 200+TC or 300, I had to get the knack of keeping both eyes open - one through viewfinder - and let my brain cope with two different views of the world, weird but it works for me.

IMHO the 200 is better balanced on the camera with a grip, it's a touch front heavy without.

sorry no time to post some examples presently

enjoy your choice

Groan, I do feel for you. Will keep an eye open on the bay - any serial no.s to watch for ? - check your receipts, they are often written down on there by the shop.

You might find you're covered on house insurance if you have the additional accidental cover on the contents too - doesn't need a seperate insurance policy to cover camera gear IIRC.

yes, a bit better than the original price, I'm not tempted yet though personally to splash the cash and upgrade my K10. Video is OK but not really top of my list, reported faster and better low light focussing is nice, a few fps more is nice too, less noise at higher ISO is a good step forward too.

The thing I would like to see in any new pentax camera is more dynamic range. IIRC slide film hs about 5 stops dynamic range, colour print 6-7 stops and modern dSLR sensors about 5stops. In camera HDR simply compresses the dynamic range of the actual scene into something which can be represented by the hardware.

It would be interesting to compare the DR capabilities of print, CRT/LCD and camera sensors, to see what could be achieved in principle, not much point in expanding one area if for some reason the other two can't match it.

PS I see lens prices have softened a bit recently too, I picked up something new from srs recently using the cashback, now just need to find a non-grey day to play

PMA 2010 is Feb 21-23, Pentax are one of the exhibitors, anyone got any rumours ? Anything new coming up lens wise ??

stupid question Greg, but just to be sure you are aware you need to do a bit of manual pre-focusing with the lens before the AFA can get it properly focussed ?

I've only used my AFA with A-series lenses, so I'm intrgued to know how you handle the exposure for K, M series?