Good luck, Peter.

I trust you will still have Internet access, so we won't lose you from the forum.

G
PS: Pentax have promised to repair my damaged *ist D for very little money. Should have checked it in a lot earlier.

Samples of the K10D are actually being shown to people in North America, and it is now fairly well established that it has the two-wheel control system of the PZ1(-P)/*istD, is quite well-made, and takes SD cards. Of course, it has AS. I am not sure about a battery pack.

Those who have handled one are impressed.

The K1D is just pure speculation, however. Nothing official has come out of Pentax.

G

It wouldn't have been gossip, it would have been gospel.

But when they talked (noncommitally) about it, they did smile like the cat that got the cream.

G

I eventually got round to Pentax HQ today to drop in my damaged *ist D. While there, I naturally enquired about availability of the K100D and the specs of the K10D.

I was told that more K100D bodies were expected in the next week, so hopefully some proper camera shops will now get their hands on some.

They said: "Would you like to see a K100D?" "No", I said, "can't be bothered".

Actually I said: "you bet", so they wheeled one out. Physically, it's not quite as nice as the D, but two things struck me. First, the much maligned pentamirro provides a lovely view through the viewfinder. Better, I thought, than the D, which surprised me. Perhaps I need to clean the eyepiece.

The second thing, of course, was the Anti-Shake. I took a couple of quick shots with the 100mm macro at 1/10 of a second. The difference was quite startling. It really is MUCH better, and there is no grinding of cogs or whirring of little motors. It just works, silently and seamlessly, and very effectively.

I then attempted to pick their brains about the K10D. Specifically I asked about USM in the new long lenses. "That information is strictly embargoed", I was told, but of course if the lenses DON'T have USM, there would be no information to embargo, so a denial would have been in order.

Perhaps I am being over-optimistic, but we shall know soon.

Anyway, I came away with the impression that the staff there are pretty happy with how things are unfolding at the moment, and it was interesting that the person on the reception desk was herself a keen Pentax user, and a fan of the K100D. A good sign, I thought.

G

Seems a little silly to put a D in front of the name. F might have been a better choice.

G

We professionals are waiting for the K10D.

G

http://www.cameradepot.co.uk/mall/departmentpage.cfm/CameraDepot/84386/1/1

G

It would be even odder not to try to sell items which they have in stock.

G

Euro 467 at Technikdirekt. But not yet!

http://tinyurl.com/jzqjh

G

Unless you want to end up with projectable transparencies, it is now easier, cheaper, more convenient, and usually much better (in terms of final quality) to do everything digitally.

If you want to shoot and print black and white, then unless you are a competent black and white printer with a good darkroom you will get far better results shooting digital, then downloading RAW files and doing the conversion and final adjustments on your PC/Mac.

Doing any sort of processing in-camera is wrong-headed. Your computer is much more powerful, and is able to run much more sophisticated programs than anything that can be squeezed into the tiny memory of a camera.

Search here for previous threads on RAW conversion and black and white digital work. Matt is especially knowledgeable and helpful.

G