So if the complaint is wasted space, are you guys not equally guilty now, if it be guilt at all? :

The Pentax 50mm f1.4 is designed for high contrast reportage work, not for high rresolution.

The 50mm f1.7 probably has more of the required pictorial qualities and certainly much higher resolution.

-7C on the way back home last night, but a balmy and pleasant sunny -4.5C when we set off this morning....

A computer has potentially more processing power than the camera. On the other hand, the camera can be programmed by the manufacturer to produce the optimum result. It's a moot point these days and as time goes by JPEG capture becomes better and better.

I suggest use what suits until there's some defect that doesn't live up to your requirements, but always keep investigating alternatives as things change very quickly.

The UV filter would work with film better than digital. In any event, modern lenses filter out UV very effectively anyway. Certainly AWB would not be a good idea as it will try to "correct" any shift in colour. I would use daylight setting.

A CPL will rarkem the blue sky potentially but not sure about the snow. It depends on the degree of polarisation of the light.

Will do, and many thanks.

The sky is blue, so the white snow is reflecting blue. This happens with water as well.

If you have a version of Photoshop with "Photo Filter" as an option, use the 81 filter to "correct" the image, adjusting its strength to suit.

Alternatively, reset the white point in Levels. Click on the right hand eye-dropper symbol and then click in the image what you want to be white - perhaps the window frame. The rest of the image will reset to reflect the change. This option can be too strong, but it's worth a try.

It looked fine to me, very bright and clear and the size I would expect.

Well I don't want to go round in circles for ever with this. I think you are misinterpreting what you think the K-5 is doing with these images.

Sorry Stefan to disagree, but the uncorrected and corrected images are exactly the same file size.