Lenses are designed for different purposes, but generally manufacturers are pretty vague as to how they describe them. If only they would come clean as to what the properties of a design are, then we could all buy the one that suits our purpose. First time....

Why do you torment yourself so, Mike? You know you really need more pentax lenses. not less....

This is possibly connected to supply chain shortages of parts, following the tsunami in Japan.

The statement received is pretty bland, because we knew that already, which was why the question was asked.

If you could do it, the cost would be prohibitive. Shooting Polaroid used to cost £1 per shot, so it could well be higher now.

Why not buy a Lego digital camera instead, at least it will look the part. Or you could make custom housing for compacts using boxes, tins, lego bricks or anything else of the period.

A friend has just started beating Tango tins to make a door skin for her camper van...anything is possible.

Blue Peter anyone?

It's a matter of confidence. If it was a problem, we wouldn't have just bought two K-5 cameras.

If it proves to be a problem, then it will get solved in an appropriate way. If it proves to be fine then we have the use of our K-5s now rather than at some unspecified time in the future.

There will always be potential problems with every marque. With the K20D early samples could have a banding problem. With Canon they had to withdraw an entire lens production. A friend of mine has trouble with his new Nikon D300S because it wouldn't playback images. And so it goes on.

Sieze the moment!

In a practical sense, the K-5 produces much better images than the K10D, so how many bits the A/D converter has is merely a technical curiosity.

I have used the *istDS>K10D>K20D>K-5 route inj my purchases and every step has been a "sea change" in terms of quality.

The 22-bit A/D conversion doesn't seem relevant. Maybe it was overkill, or maybe it was the only electronic component readily available to use at the time, at the right price.

Only in a simplistic sense, in fact it's down to magnification. It relates to a lens focal length but also the format it is projecting its image onto.

This is why different formats have different "standard" lenses to give the normal field of view. A 35mm film body has a standard lens of 50mm (should be 43mm really), but a 50mm lens on a 110 film camera is a telephoto. Both lenses still have the same DOF though, both being 50mm. So the telephoto lens on a small format has the same DOF as a standard lens on the larger format.

The Minox "spy camera" has a standard lens of 15mm, which has immense DOF. My Pentax I-10 has a zoom from 5-25mm and also has immense DOF.

That's why compact digital cameras are superb for detailed macro shots.

Apart from anything else, your first image is over exposed for the bright object against a dark background. You need to use exposure compensation to darken the image down. It's also very poor quality, so is it hand held with a high ISO in poor light?

Why not go outdoors and take some general shots in good light so that you can judge the outcome. If you order a new K-5 from SRS it will arrive next day and be fine i'm sure.

As regards SR, when on a tripod I use the 2 second timer, so the SR is switched off and the mirror locked up anyway. It also prevents any camera shake form operating the shutter release.

I would suspect that if someone bought something they would be quite keen to supply their address....