Ah, but you see, this was precisely the reason you only just got away with it...

All the others, with their cameras round their necks, probably ended up mugged and sans-camera.

You must have just been lucky that day, that the number of bad guys was exactly equal to the number of tourists with their cameras out, so they were fully occupied with them and left you alone.



Glad you had a good time.

If it has the same trigger voltage as the MX130, then it's probably not recommended.

http://www.botzilla.com/photo/strobeVolts.html

Best to measure it, and if it's under 10V, current opinion seems to be that it'll be Ok.

190 seems a bit excessive though.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if no one outside Pentax and Samsung knows for sure - since they'd have to do it to be sure. And finding someone with enough money not to care if they break it, and also with the interest to bother, might be very difficult.

Since functionally the cameras are virtually identical (apart from the PEF RAW format), I can't believe that the menus can be different enough to make it worth while to muck about like this.

The firmware is like an operating system. It's a computer program that runs when the camera is on, and controls all the camera's functions.

If you corrupt it, it might not run at all. If it won't run, the upload procedure, which is itself presumably a function performed by the running firmware, won't run either, so replacing the firmware won't be possible without returning it for service, where they'd have to flash it externally.

Personally I wouldn't chance it, although I wouldn't be surprised if it worked.

But is there a particular reason you'd want to?

They publish their own firmware updates:

http://www.samsungcamera.com/customer/download/cus_firmware_list.asp

This version apparently adds builtin-flash-as-wireless-controller and SDM support, so I can't imagine there's functionally much difference.

Edit: I've just run a quick compare of the most recent Pentax and Samsung firmware files, and not surprisingly, they are very different. Not, of course, that in itself, this is evidence for or against them both being compatible or incompatible with both cameras.

But I still wouldn't chance it - the functional similarity is so great, that the risk of an expensive mistake just doesn't seem worth it to me.

A quiet 'slide...thunk'?

It's normal - worry not.

Opinions vary as to whether it's the orientation sensor, or the shake reduction mechanism allowing the sensor to move a bit. My guess is the latter, since owners of the K100D, which doesn't have an orientation sensor, report the same noise.

Turn it on and enjoy - and welcome to the forum!!

Ok, then if Matt's right, and (at the same distance and aperture) the depth of field with the shorter lens is 1.5x greater (on the image), but you have to enlarge it 1.5x as much, doesn't this cancel out the additional DOF you get with the shorter lens?

This has always puzzled me. I thought the whole point of medium format was that it was for much bigger enlargements than 35mm.

If you only needed the same size print as on 35mm, then I could see why medium format lenses wouldn't need to be so sharp. But since the prints are supposed to be so much bigger, why aren't they equally sharp?

Let me think aloud a bit, if I may...

It is not the camera that makes the depth of field different. It's the fact that you're using a shorter focal length lens with APS-C.

It seems like you're saying that to get the same angle of view with digital, you need a shorter lens, so the DOF is greater. Nothing particularly controversial there, as far as I understand it.

However, the image size is smaller with your 77mm lens on APS-C, than the 155mm gives you on 35mm.

So the APS-C image will need more enlargement to give the same size print, than the corresponding 35mm image.

Presumably this is 1.5x as much enlargement.

Is this anywhere near right?

It "should be". But it is not advisable to rely on either SR or the 1/(focal length) rule of thumb if you're trying to judge the sharpness of a lens.

I'm sure you look very fashionable in Canada, Don.

No - as far as I can tell, they're much the same (and both Pentax ones) in every respect.

What I keep forgetting to do, is note how many shots I get out of each one. It's loads though.

I have no issue with the battery life as such, but it is sometimes annoying when it dies suddenly, since if I miss the indicator going to half, the only warning I get is when the shutter won't release.

I've just got used to knowing roughly how long it's been since the last change, and if there's even a shadow of a doubt in my mind that it will last for what I want to do, I swap it for the charged one.