Yes it does.

The manual, pp 67-69 is most helpful in this regard.

The point at issue is whether the lens can communicate its focal length to the camera.

I'd be very surprised if any of the modern AF 3rd party lenses can't, and the instructions for how to set up SR with MF lenses are reasonably clear. Use actual focal length, not the 1.5x factor.

One of the reasons people cite for wanting a 35mm sensor is to be able to continue using old wide angle lenses as such.

The price of a good extreme wide angle lens for an APS-C dSLR is about 500 quid, plus or minus. Does anyone that wants full frame really believe that the extra they'd have to pay for a 35mm body would be less than the price of an extreme wide angle lens - or even two?

And with the way lenses have come on since they bought their lenses, they'll probably get better image quality by buying a new lens and sticking with APS-C, than they would do with their old lens and a body with a 35mm sensor.

Well, in fairness, the new Nikon D3 is full frame. And it's interesting that they chose to go just for 12 MP, and presumably bigger pixels, which is presumably what gives it ISO 25600 in some boost mode.

But in due course, things will have moved on, and the same sort of range will probably be available with the smaller sensors at far less cost.

This is true.

However this does not follow, for the following reason:

The film is a tiny part of the cost of having a bigger space to record the image on, whereas this is not the case for sensors.

As Matt has explained, it is much, much more difficult and therefore expensive to make a big sensor of the same quality and resolution as a small sensor. You cannot scale up the sensor size, and scale up its price by only the same proportion.

The objective is image quality. So if it remains technically easier to improve image quality with little sensors than it is to make big ones, then that's what they'll do.

So it also doesn't follow that to stay in the game they'll If they can achieve the required IQ, then they won't need to.

Whether they can or not, at the very top end, remains to be seen, of course.

The people having exposure issues with pre-A lenses in stop-down metering mode would be the K10D owners.

AIUI, the K100D is Ok in this regard.

It would be nice.

The more ranges they offer, the more different manufacturing processes they'll need. I guess they have to compromise as much as anyone else.

It does look as if finally they're heading in the right direction - we just can't have everything straight away.

Presumably there's significantly more manufacturing cost to do the weatherproofing - I'd rather the 'consumer' DA lenses stayed at accessible prices.

When the 35mm film format came out, was there the same chorus of complaints?

Or had interchangeable lenses not been introduced by then?

Triggering studio lights isn't the only reason I want to be able to switch pre-flash off.

I'd like to be able to use off-camera AF540 in fully manual (or even auto-flash) mode without pre-flash - so that I can avoid the problem with quick-reacting subjects blinking when they see the pre-flash, thus ruining the photo by having half-closed eyes.

There's almost a way of working round it - I can put the AF540 on one of the cheap optical triggers and use a pre-A lens (or an A lens in manual), because then the K10D does not emit a pre-flash.

Of course it's only half a solution, because it seems to fire the built-in at full power (certainly the flash compensation dial in the Fn menu has no effect), which I wouldn't necessarily want. I can cover up 3/4 of the built-in with something if I have to, I suppose, but if I want to use a new lens with no aperture ring then I'm stuffed.

Despite having this rather half-arsed workaround, I think it's a bit crap that the super-duper new kit with all its capabilities introduces a very specific, and not at all uncommon, problem, and gives you no decent way of working round it.

Could you explain why a sync speed of 1/250 rather than 1/180 is an advantage in the studio, where presumably, virtually all the light is coming from the flash units?

I could understand why a faster sync speed might be desirable outside, lit mostly by natural light where you wanted the lens that bit wider open to reduce the depth of field, but still use fill in flash.

But I'm not clear why it would make a difference in the studio.