I'm beginning to think that there may be a fault in my camera, as I had tried almost all the program settings suggested by you helpful chaps. Perhaps I'm doing something wrong, but I've yet to discover what. In AF the camera hunts frantically, irrespective of the program setting used. In MF, it just stalls until the red square appears in the viewfinder accompanied by a beep. The pause before it fires is absolutely enfuriating, and I've missed many good shots as a result and sometimes, despite the apparent requirement for the lens to find focus, get shots that are so out of focus as to be utterly useless, and I stress out of focus and not simply blurred.

My canon was an EOS 300D and performed very well, but I wanted better than 6.3MP. The decision to return to Pentax was due to the number of K mount lenses I had for my ME Super, although these have largely been replaced now with Digital lenses.

I'll not give up and will continue to try every program setting until I've exhausted every combination. If I don't find a solution, I'll have to send the camera to Pentax for a check.

In the meantime, thanks to all for your suggestions.

Thanks for the advice. As it happens, I do use continuous focusing, but this doesn't seem to overcome the camera's reluctance to fire unless and until it beeps to indicate that something has come into focus. I've also set to manual with continuous focusing, and still it demands that something comes into focus before it fires.

There are times when precise focusing has to take second place to the capture of a moment, and it would appear that Pentax doesn't agree .

I've had no luck with taking pictures of the moon with a digital camera, but had some decent shots with my old ME Super. I can't explain this, but have a sort of theory.

The problem seems to be that, in order to get a clear image, a small aperture is required, but that means a longer exposure and the moon moves a bit during this time. Using a higher ISO with a faster exposure creates a very noisy pic, which effect is not seen on film. the longer the focal length of the lens, the worse the problem.

I've seen some fabulous shots of the moon by other photographers, and I wish I could afford their kit.

Can someone tell me how to set up my K10 so that I can take shots where there's a lot of movement?

My previous camera was a Canon, and this had an action setting that allowed me to take pictures of moving subjects. Unfortunately, the K10 seems to have no such facility and, if anything moves in the sensor area of the viewfinder, the camera simply refuses to fire. Even if I set to manual focus, the shutter will not fire unless and until something in focus in the frame hits a sensor.

It's even worse when attempting to take flash photos, as I can hold the shutter down for anything up to 3 seconds before the camera will take the shot, and then the moment I wanted to capture is lost .

I can't believe that Pentax would design so dictatorial a camera, so how do I overcome these ridiculous restrictions?

I have a confession to make - I've only just become aware of all the friendly welcome messages left by members, and I'm really embarrassed that I've not responded until now. Well, to put matters right - thank you all for the messages and, since there are at least a couple of folk near me, it would be great to meet up and bore each other witless with our portfolios. Alternatively, we could just sink a few beers and talk nonsense.

Any takers?

P.S. When I find out how to do it, I'll add my location as suggested.

Sorry, forgot to say where I am - I'm in Farnham, Surrey. Any near neighbours in here?

Hi all. I've used Pentax since the launch of the ME Super, and have now got a K10D. My previous digital was a Canon 300D, but switched back to Pentax because I had a bag of PK lenses I thought I could use with the K10. So here I am now with a bagful of questions about the K10, which is driving me insane and I hope to find help here, as there's none coming from Pentax.