It's well documented that most electronic failures happen within the first six months. After that, things tend to keep on going.

Think of how lucky we are compared to VCR users, where some makes had a one year failure rate of around 30%.

Whatever the reason, it seems it's time to send it in for a repair quote or to replace it?

Between myself, family and many friends I have known of a very large number of Pentax cameras in circulation. The only problem was a fault in a K10D a few years back, that was fixed by Johnsons for less than £80.

Add to that the number of users on here compared to the number who have posted about an issue and we get a very low failure rate. As mentioned before, Pentax had the best reliability result in a quite extensive survey that was published a few years ago. As Steve says, all marques have problems from time to time and most have more problems than Pentax.

Daniel wrote a very nice two page (I think) review and covered what he could in the space available. Unfortunately some posters were very negative about it, which is not very pleasant when you feel you are telling a group of friends about something.

Well done Daniel for persevering and going on to write more reviews.

The K-5 is still a very capable camera and will deliver very sharp A3 prints with no difficulty.

The K-1 is faster in operation and delivers, potentially, even sharper images at greater print sizes. It's a beautiful camera to use and well worth the upgrade. How much better the images are will depend upon our photographic technique. The results can be stunning.

There's only one way to find out! But if you post a picture of the damage it might help us offer any helpful suggestions we might have.

Those are a really satisfying set of images. It's a great lens, but it's the photographer who has made the images.

Don't forget PU Plus members get a 20% discount on servicing at JPS.

I use the Dell IPS monitors and they have a very crisp but gentle-on-the-eye image. Most TV screens are far too contrasty, as to be honest are the Apple displays, detailed though they are.

The optimum is always the tool designed for the job, although we can always manage with less if needs be.

Ships, large and small, complete or details, close or distant..........you will need all the usual lenses you would expect. An 18-200mm is pretty good overall, but for details on the ships perhaps something longer as well.

I'd start at f/8 and just make sure the shutter speed is sufficient to stop camera shake and subject movement.

Hope that helps!