Interestingly enough (or maybe not!!), it's closer to 82%, but not only that, the aspect ratio of the K-5 and K-3 sensors are not exactly the same.

The K-5 is 4928 x 3264, 1.5098. Whereas
the K-3 is 6016 x 4000, 1.504.

Well I thought it was mildly interesting anyway...

Sorry, I'll get my coat..

Cheers. That'll be good enough for me to bite if everything else is as it should be.

Sorry, I was writing lazily...

I meant, open the raw file in PS or LR, then resize the whole image to pixel dimensions the same as the K-5's (that's what I meant by 16 MP, but I accept it wasn't clear!), allowing it to do whatever resampling it does.

And then chop out a suitable 800px wide bit of what's left, for comparison with the K-5 unresized one you posted earlier.

Noise in images that have been reduced in size is usually less than at full size, so I was just wondering how that would compare.

I could do it myself, I just thought that since you already had the images to hand, and I'd need to do the whole lot for the comparison to be worth anything.

Doc, just following on from Pentaxophile's comment, if you have a sec, please could you post the K-3 one again, but after reducing the original raw file to 16 MP with no other changes?

Most impressed then. I was expecting you to say that you prefocused, to be honest.

Whatever you do, don't sell that lens (unless it's to me, obviously!).

Very nice.

How did you actually focus? AF-C/S, or did you prefocus on a point?

I think this is actually wrong. It was true a few years ago, but it seems to me now that Pentax is catching up, rather than falling further behind.

If this continues, then all the reasons others have given for sticking with Pentax (ergonomics, build quality) make it more and more sensible to do so.

If the K-3 is all it stacks up to be, there'll be no reason to jump ship at all AFAICS.

And received, many thanks.

If the mark on the images is in the same place every time, it will be muck of some description on the sensor for sure.

Options are:

- Blow it off with a rocket blower. This causes as much trouble as it solves, lots of folk here find that it can easily introduce more muck.

- If it's dust or a hair, gently remove it with an Arctic Butterfly. Expensive, but highly rated by folk here, including me.

- If it's something stuck (pollen tends to stick), a wet clean will be needed. Kits can be bought online, and it's not as scary a process as some people would have you believe.

Be a little careful using the term 'sensor stain'. There was a problem with early batches of K-5 cameras where there was an actual defect with the sensor. This became known as the 'sensor stain' problem. Ancient history now, but referring to sensor stains does tend to risk confusion!

Hard luck - haven't looked through them all but the ones I've seen are really nice.