Speaking as an ex newspaper journalist (writer not photographer) I think pro sport photographers prefer the Canons and Nikons because of their greater range of fast long lenses and camera bodies that have a better rate of frames per second on drive. There's no question image quality on the Pentaxes can match them.
david

I worried about noise levels with my K10d at 400 and higher ISO, especially in darker areas of the picture that I lighten in PS. I take many pictures in museums and Cathedrals where higher ISO is essential as I don't use a tripod.
I now shoot exclusively in RAW whereas I used to shoot mainly in JPEG. This improved things but lately I realised that the more processing you do in the RAW converter before going into Photoshop to finish the job, the better the end result. In just the last week I've gone back to some earlier images and have been able to improve on the noise levels considerably just by trial and error and making a note of what level of manipulation works best for each picture. I'm still not perfect at this but getting better.
david

There are some stunning flower pictures in the Gallery entered by non regulars in the weekly competition section. I'm sure, as Coriander said in another thread, that a lot of people are scared of winning as it's quite a responsibilty setting and judging the next topic. Its also quite exciting.
david

I would like to add what John and Martin say by repeating some of our colleagues in the Gallery and Forum speak other than English as their first language and may find commenting on dozens of pictures a very difficult task in what is to them a foreign language. Yes some of our friends from outside the English speaking countries have excellent English, but for some others it must be very difficult.
I know from experience that it takes up a lot of time doing C+C on every entry. Perhaps on the rare occasions this little difficulty arises we should be flexible and not put our judge under additional pressure. It doesn't happen very often.
david

Thanks for the vote Kris. I found this competition a close call, like you I'm glad I wasn't the judge although as I've already said my winner would have been Tony's
david
PS. Thanks also to you Josh.

My favourite wasn't the same one as the judge or Martin although it was black and white. It was Tony O's 'A Quiet Moment Together'. I liked the use of so much space in the front of the picture which isolated the couple sitting near the window and somehow made them appear closer. Apart from the emotional content the photograph was of a very high quality.
david

I've just had another look at the entries and I think I agree with Martin. For me the best one is mono.
david

The point being???
david

Got a Zenith, my first 'serious' camera in the 1970s but as a reporter on the evening paper I worked with professional snappers who used Pentax Spotmatics. I got more photographically ambitious and within a year or so I also had a Spotmatic. It was the SP500 but it also went up to 1000/th of a second, same as the more costly SP1000 like someone else said earlier in this thread.
When the MX came out I was a new memeber of a camera club and fell in love with it. Used the MX, and later an ME Super for many years until in th 1990s got the Pentax Z1. The professional press photographers had long since moved on to Nikon and then to the Canon EOS range but I stayed with Pentax. For a time I carried around a well-used Nikon FM2 at work, courtesy of our picture editor, and used it sometimes on stories when a 'pro' photographer wasn't available. Although it had a similar specification to the MX I never warmed to it like I did with the much smaller and more sophisticated Pentax.
When I turned digital just three years ago (*Ist DS)I didn't consider anything other than Pentax as I had compatible lenses and liked the ergonomics. Most of my camera club friends were onto the Canon digitals by this time with only a few Nikon users in Durham PS. I suspect we have at least as many Pentax users as Nikon users at Durham.
One of my fellow Pentaxians at Durham PS is John Attle, better known as DOIK on this site.
No plans to move on to any other make.

Hi Lilly,
I got my Lacie hardrive last summer so I've had it for several months, no probs at all, yet.
david