Beautiful shot.
We get them here on the Isle of Skye but I've never managed to see any looking this good. Let alone take a photograph. Very well done.

Great set of images for IQ evaluation. Thank you very much for your time effort and trouble.

I reckon the Pentax 300 Da will be the one for me.

I haven't any experience of the Pentax 300mm lenses but have had quite extensive use of the Sigma 2.8 300mm and the 120-300mm lenses and although they produced excellent results most of the time they were way to heavy to lug about on extended walks to photograph wildlife.
Having switched to Pentax I'm currently using a humble Sigma 70-300 base model and I'm quite impressed.
I will probably look at replacing this lens very shortly but what to get? Mmmmmmm!

Whereabouts and how do I find the shutter actuation count on my K5's please?

I've been using the 18-135mm lens for weddings, in fact I've posted images on the forum .
I have to say I am more than happy, focus spot on, good colour rendition, quiet, and very user friendly.
What more do I need?

Mmmmm,

I guess I'm probably old school having had my formal education in photography 40 years ago, but I still refer to the zone system if I'm uncertain about the contrast range of a given scene.
Ansel Adams and Fred Archer invented the Zone System in the late 30's early 40's at an art school in Los Angeles.
The value of zero representing true black and then going through to the value of ten which represents pure white the value five being the perfect midtone, based on a true grey card of 12% reflectance value (in ambient light)

In practice I find that most modern DSLR's give very accurate meter readings and therefore exposure using matrix or evaluative metering.
However when I am using my RZ67 with a digi back I meter with a spot reading using a hand held exposure meter of a mid tone. I then take shadow and high light readings and go from there. A bit of a faff I admit, and time consuming but it's the way I work and the way I know is reliable.

Can't really fault the K5's or the KR for exposure overall so with them I don't bother much with faffing around.
But understanding tone values as represented by the Zone System is a sign of a serious and dedicated photographer.

Hi,

I'm in the market for a prime w/a lens for my K5's. The main choice seems to be the Pentax 14mm. Does anyone have anything particularly bad or good to say about this lens?

Gwyn,

Sometimes living on the IOS feels as remote as living on the moon.
USA to Heathrow 9hrs
Heathrow - Euston 2.75 hrs
Euston- Inverness 12hrs
Inverness to IOS 3hrs

Still it was our choice to live here and we certainly wouldn't want to change.

I wish you lads would stop rubbing it in about how near you all are to SRS.

I hope to get over there myself next week, but far too early for the Pentax day.

We plan to be back down in Kent after Xmas, this trip is mainly business as we are photographing a wedding
in Luton on the 5th then visiting the family and the mother-out-law.
Hope to catch some exhibitions in London on the 8th and 9th then hopefully over to SRS to perhaps buy an
inkjet printer and the list goes on and on of what we want to try and get done in ten days.

I think Pentaxophile has a point.
A wee gizmo to shift focus using your forefinger would seem obvious.
Wonder why it hasn't been done either by Pentax or any of the other breeds.