The screen on my Asus N56 VZ is not IPS (as far as I know) but it is 1920 * 1080 and it is pretty damned good. It is better than almost every full size 1920 * 1080 monitor I have ever used and better than any price comparable laptop I've seen.

Regards
David

Many thanks to everyone who has had a look and/or commented on these images - the comments have been very nice and it's good to know that they seem to have gone down well. I think I've got a fair bit of work to do now to wade through the rest of the holiday pics!

Cheers
David

I took a K-01 on holiday for two weeks, along with my K-5IIs and K-5. I have to say I loved using it and found it excellent for certain types of shots, especially indoors using a manual focus lens where the results were spectacular due to the focus peaking which makes MF as easy to use as AF and in fact makes it easier in very poor light. I was finding I could accurately focus a Pentax-M 50mm F1.4 when used wide open - this is virtually impossible with a K-5 or K-5IIs!!

Also, the lack of a mirror eliminates mirror induced shake and this means it is easier to get sharp images at very low shutter speeds. I don't find the K-01's relatively large size an issue and it is easy to shoot one-handed with a AF lens, such as the excellent DA XS 40mm pancake that came with the camera. IQ is great, as good as a K-5.

Regards
David

I've come back to this thread a few times as I'm interested in the observations given.

Whenever I shoot images in woodland I invariably do two things:

1. Make sure they are a little under-exposed to avoid any blown highlights as it is always easier to bring out shadow details than to recover blown highlights
2. Reduce the yellows in post processing as they always tend to come out looking 'artificial' due to the light quality and colouration in woodland, when trees are in leaf

For what it's worth, I think Nigel is struggling a bit with these shots to correct issues that are present on the original exposures, mostly a slight over-exposure which cannot easily be reversed in post processing. To regain colour in the skies, a 'forced' look is the result.

I think the colour accuracy could easily be improved by an overall reduction in yellow saturation, whereas for the skies it might be worth going back and re-shooting the images in similar lighting, and reducing the exposure levels by 1/3 to 2/3 stops, or even a bit more, then processing to enhance shadow details.

Regards
David

Hello and welcome Alan. I'm not sure if you could stretch to it as you have referred to above, but I would recommend you have a look around for a K-5 in preference to a K20D or the Samsung equivalent. There are quite a few around in good condition for between £300 and £350; you might even find one cheaper. This is a much better camera than a K20 or a K-r.

If you are looking at spending £220 on a K20, the stretch to a K-5 does not seem to be massive and in this case I think it would be worth doing this and waiting a while for the glass. I don't know if the warranty is a deal breaker but, have a look on the forum at the K-5's currently for sale.

Regards
David

I wondered why you had changed your name to 'Horst' Stuey, it did seem a little bit odd

It's not a bad quote though, so maybe you should have taken the credit for it!

Cheers
David

I broadly agree, but it was the screen I was highlighting in the post above, which really is exceptional for a laptop and is perfectly suited to photo editing.

Regards
David

Hi Barrie, thanks for pointing this out - it is something that I had not picked up on; you must have a better eye than me!

Regards
David

One tip would be that they aren't cheap! If you want one with a full HD screen (this is best if you can afford it) with a decent amount of processing power, they are not at the lower end of the price range.

I recently took the decision to ditch my desktop PC for a good laptop with a full HD screen and I went for an Asus N56 VZ with Core i7 Ivybridge processor, 1Tb Hard Drive and 8gb RAM. This is plenty powerful enough for photo editing and easily outperforms my previous desktop which was a Pentium D 3.0GHZ dual core processor with 3Gb RAM.

However, the best bit is the screen. The Asus N56 series are renowned for having fantastic full HD screens and I can confirm that the monitor with this laptop is a real stunner. Colour accuracy is very good, it is matte, so does not glare or reflect, it is pin sharp and very bright / contrasty.

The downside is battery life (approx. 3 hours), but this is not an issue for me and everything else about this laptop is brilliant, including the Bang and Olufsen speakers which sound fantastic (for a laptop).

I would highly recommend this machine - it cost me around £800 from simplyasus.com and they even gave me a free upgrade from the one I ordered which meant I got a £1000 laptop for £800. I work with computers and have used many different laptops over the past 6 or 7 years and this one is by far the best I have used.

Hope this is helpful.

Regards
David

I've just spent a couple of weeks travelling around the Mediterranean with Shaun Wilson and our respective families. In between the sunbathing and sightseeing we managed to squeeze in a few photographs, of which I've processed about 5% so far

Here is a selection of a few of my favourites to date; I have tried to include a broad range of different image types. They were taken with the K-5IIs, K-5 and K-01, with various lenses. I hope you like them and I would welcome your views and constructive criticism.

Early Morning near Gibralter - K-5IIs and DA L 55-300 - Straits of Gibralter





Sailing into Gibralter - K-5 and DA 16-45 - Straits of Gibralter





Gypsy Beggar Woman - K-5 and DA L 55-300 - Florence, Italy





Photographing the Beggar Man - K-5IIs and DA L 55-300 - Genoa, Italy





Girl on the Steps - K-5 and DA L 55-300 - Rome, Italy





Images of The Residents - K-5IIs and DA 17-70 - Lisbon, Portugal





Malaga Race-Track (actually the main road) - K-5IIs and DA 17-70 - Malaga, Spain





Pantheon - K-5 and DA 17-70 - Rome, Italy





Sunset in Black and White - K-01 and DA XS 40mm F2.8 - Spanish Mediterranean





Photographer, Sunset and Young Couple - K-01 and DA XS 40mm F2.8 - Spanish Mediterranean





Photographer On The Deck - K-01 and Pentax-M 28mm F3.5 - Italian Mediterranean





Perfect Evening On Deck - K-5IIs and DA 17-70 - Spanish Mediterranean




Many thanks in advance of your comments and observations.

Best wishes
David