I would say that we should never touch the mirror with anything. The mechanism is fragile, of a very high precision and it's essential with a DSLR that it is in the correct position.

I don't know the answer to your question, but it's possible that it's been out and demonstrated. If you're unhappy, then send it back for an exchange?

The title has now been announced, so good luck everyone!

I've also been in touch with Magdalena and she is perfectly happy to be judging this milestone competition and would rather have that opportunity than have a try at the prize.

https://www.pentaxuser.com/news/enter-the-500th-weekly-competition-on-pentax-use...

The usual Competitions section will be used of course, not the forum thread!

As regards judging, the whole point of the competition is that it's set and judged by the membership. I understand JAK's point, but it seems fair to me that we do the 500th the same way we did all the others. We can't deny the winner of 499 the right to judge as per all the others.

It's exactly the same as what happened for 100, 200, 300 and 400 competitions and is just a little bonus to celebrate reaching these milestones. I guess nothing is perfect, but it ensures continuity. Even if it was a separate competition it still needs a judge, who couldn't win of course.

Hopefully as in all the previous cases we can see it as a small sacrifice for the kudos of being a Milestone Judge.

Don't forget there are prizes for the winner of #500! See the article for details.

Otherwise, just enter as normal in the Competitions section and you could be a PU Plus membership and a Vanguard bag better off if you win!

There's some discussion on the web regarding this, so if you Google it there's plenty to research.

No politics on PU though, so reasons are neither here nor there and always a matter of opinion anyway.

The loss of value of Sterling is just a salient fact that has caused the price rise, no other comment is intended.

Yes, Sterling has lost some ground against the Dollar. Fortunately I paid for 12 months, so the new rate will be whatever it is at renewal date. Hopefully the currency may be doing better again by then.

It's a matter of balance to some degree. For example, the RAW vs JPEG argument gets so heated that I've met people who were surprised that we could get any sort of image out of a JPEG file, never mind a high quality one.

Focusing is something else. I've used a lot of cameras in the past couple of years in particular and for general purpose use there is little to choose between them. Without mentioning names, I have had very expensive camera bodies flumoxed by situations that would have been a breeze with Pentax. Likewise, I am sure that there are situations where Pentax is put to shame by other marques for specific purposes.

But whatever camera we choose, it will do some things brilliantly and some things less so. Part of the skill in photography is finding a way to make it work, unless of course we are lucky to be able to afford a different camera for different applications.

I think to be fair every marque will be more expensive than it has been in the past, if only because the value of Sterling has dropped.

I was looking at the overall market of 70-200mm f/2.8 lenses recently, and the least expensive marque option was Pentax. If you really look at the issue overall, Pentax remains highly competitive, although that is not the be all and end all of everything, what I really want is for them to maintain their quality standards and keep producing excellent products that I want to buy. They will need good margins to achieve this.