This will, in all probability, be my last post for obvious reasons. I shall be persevering with my present 'stuff', at least until next Autumn. I would just like to thank those of you who have assisted me, especially johnriley.

I am still determined to end up with a Pentax and look forward with some little anticipation what Pentax will have on offer in twelve months. Thank you all.

Your comments are much appreciated ChrisA, you echo my wife's sentiments. I am thinking along the lines of you both. I have invested a lot in the 650D. Along with the 18-55mm kit lens, I have the canon 70-300mm, Tamron 18-270mm and the Sigma 105 macro lens.

Although I still regard myself as a novice, I can usually take some decent shots using either the Sv or Av priority modes. However, I do sometimes revert to Auto or P modes in times of blind panic. Hee! Hee! Apologies if I may have caused offence by talking about Canon in a Pentax forum. I shall probably disappear gracefully but still take great interest in this rather good forum.

Just in case there are any of you who may be interested. My K-30 plans have been postponed. Earlier this week I drove down to Burton upon Trent. The reason was to sell my Canon 'stuff'. The person concerned was 100% certain that he wanted my 'stuff' and was more than happy to pay my price but could not get up to me.

On arrival I was told that he had changed his mind and had already bought from someone else. This person had my telephone details but did not think it was a requirement or common courtesy to inform me of his actions.

In the unlikely event of anyone wanting to buy my 'stuff' they will have to come to me. No more Mr Nice Guy.

I have spent a lot of time reading everything I could find about the K-30. I am now left with just three concerns.

1. Getting to grips with the K-30 in camera menu, it looks pretty daunting.

2. Am I correct in assuming that CDAF is Contrast detect auto focus and is used only in doing videos and PDAF is Phase detect auto focus and is used only in 'still' photography?

3. I have read consistently about the K-30 having, poor, slow, sluggish etc auto focus. Being a novice, this means little to me. Compared to my 650D I am assured that the K-30 is slower to auto focus and that I will always need to re-compose my shot before taking it.

When the phrase 'slow' etc is used how much slower, one second, five seconds or would I not even notice the difference?

These may be stupid questions to you gentlemen who have photographic knowledge but to me they are huge concerns. I really want to go back to a Pentax but need to know 100% that I won't be doing something very stupid by getting rid of my 650D. [I need to do this in order to finance my K-30].

I have only recently come out of full 'auto' mode. I can for the most part use either 'shutter' and or 'aperture' priority depending on whether I am taking still or moving subjects'. A generality, of course. However in moments of blind panic I am known to revert to 'auto'. Now you can perhaps see my concerns in a better light. As always, my grateful appreciation for all of your assistance, gentlemen.:

I am now a little closer to getting a K-30 and am having to choose between the twin lens kit of 18-55 WR with the 50-200 WR or the 18-55 non WR with the 55-300 non WR kit.

I would appreciate opinions of whether it might be better to go for the kit with the 55-300 lens as I like to do shots of birds in flight etc. What difference does the gap between 200 to 300 make, if any at all?:

It looks like a long wait to return to Pentax. I have now had my Canon 'stuff' for sale for about a fortnight without one enquiry. I am offering it at a rather low price as well. Never mind.

My appreciation to those of you who have given assistance. Although I like my 650D, I still feel that I should really have a Pentax. To enable this I will need to offload some lenses and the 650D, which may take some time.

My next post will probably be to inform the forum that I have reverted back to a Pentax. Thank you all.

It as been a very long time since I last posted.
The reason is simple. I went over to Canon last December. The main reasons for selling my K-r were as follows.

1. Alleged front and back focus problems with all of Pentax cameras.

2. Poor or slow auto focus.

3. Continual hunting during focusing.

4. Problems when using camera in tungsten and or low light circumstances.

At the time there appeared not to be any general consensus of agreement in answers to these problems. So, being of a novice in matters DSLR I jumped ship and currently own a Canon 650D.

While I have managed to move on from fully automatic mode, I now feel confident enough to use Av and Tv most of the time, I would really like to make use of the K-30 with it's array of 'scene options'. I will never become fully aquainted with 'manual' mode. For these reasons I am thinking of coming back to Pentax and also that I have always favoured Pentax since my Pentax ME cameras many years ago.

I am wondering whether or not the above mentioned alleged problems have been sorted out by now. All genuine assistance will be gratefully accepted.

[quote:3496ace15f="JohnX"]I saw these. Although they say Canon I'm sure they can't be make specific, only LCD size. Could be worth checking, especially at the price.

]http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/cameraextras_uk/m.html?_nkw=Viewfinder&_sacat=0&_odkw=...

Thanks JohnX, I've just tried to telephone them but they must not work on Saturdays. I'll try again on Monday. Muchly appreciated.

I emailed SRS suggesting just that about a month ago. As yet I have not had any response.

Gedski.