And no screw drive, so newer AF lenses only.

But I hope you're right, and the K-3 price comes down as a consequence.

Let's hope that's a good thing

I made no comment about whether one is better than the other.

However, they're not the same. I read somewhere that it's a completely new sensor, but I can't remember where I read it.

The D7100 has a Toshiba sensor. The K-3's sensor is made by Sony.

It made me laugh at the end, and the production is good.

But as a promotion, it's rubbish. Except in the sense of any publicity being good publicity.

That said, it was mercifully short, and entirely unlike Ricoh's promo vid for the K-3, which made me want to punch their entire marketing department.

The first by a mile.

Keeping the distant section of the path sharp gives the composition somewhere to go, and the leaves are an interesting stopping-off point along the way.

Blurring the distant section effectively stops the journey at the leaves, which seems a lot less satisfying.

Not particularly bothered by the blur in the immediate foreground - I don't think it affects the composition as much.

If you really mean this, you should definitely do all you can to get the K-3.

Let's say the difference in price is about 400 quid. Over 5 years, that's 22p per day.

If necessary, buy it from Jessops on interest-free.

I wasn't disagreeing with this. Even if it's true, if more people are buying Pentax because the range (of bodies and lenses) is so much better than it used to be, it may be enough for Pentax sales to continue to increase.

I'd still challenge the premise though. I can only speak for myself, but when I got the K10D, initially at any rate, it satisfied me far more than the K-5 did - my ability, aspirations and expectations have increased much faster than the technology, so I now want to be able to push the hardware harder than I ever did with the K10D.

There are so many possible things to take pictures of that become available as the technology advances - fast action shots, shots in the dark (-3EV for instance ), to name but two, that I don't think the K-3 will exhaust the possibilities.

That doesn't mean that I'll be capable of getting the very best out of the camera though - just that my best will be better than it was before.

Do many people upgrade every time?

I came into dSLR-Land with the K10D, kept it until I got a K-5, and I'll only be getting a K-3 if the AF is as good as they claim.

I expect in general, those that don't upgrade every model are fairly out of phase with one another too - I expect plenty came in one of the *ists, then upgraded to K20D, then K-5 II, and may not bother with the K-3. Some of course will start with entry-level, and then move up the range.

So provided the catchment is broad enough, there will continue to be sales of each new model. The answer has to be to maximise the number of people buying Pentax at all. If the K-3 is any good, the range will be genuinely competitive, so it will have increasing credibility amongst Pentax Pollyannas, hard-core other branders (even if they don't actually switch) and beginning dSLR users alike.

Has to be a good thing.

Yes, I guess it's a case of 'be careful what you wish for'.