I don't see how it gives dealers or anyone else "free reign" either. If they bid more they win, just like anybody else.

If I don't win an item I don't really care who has.

So which is which? However, the fact they were hand held does negate the test as 1/500 sec is only the bare minimum and there is no guarantee of freedom of shake.

Lens tests just have to be on a solid tripod, and even then several shots should be taken just to make sure.

Why not have a go and then repost to show us how you're getting on?

Today was supposed to be a Dakota, but we got there too late for that. Sorry to hear we missed you, maybe next year!

We just spent today at Haworth, taking candid shots in the rain. I used the K20D and the SMC Pentax-DA 55-300mm lens. They both got very wet, but no harm done to either.
[IMG]http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff250/johnriley1uk/025-Old-Soldier.jpg[/IMG]

Forget the 14 million pixels, concentrate on 4000 x 3000 or whatever else the image size is.

If you use a ppi of 72 that will be a huge image, if you use 300ppi it will be smaller, but the number of pixels will not change.

When you change the number of pixels to achieve the print size you want, then you are interpolating (making up pixels) to change the pixel count.

The only two ppi figures you need are 72ppi (screen, web, projection) and 300ppi (print, publication) and although you could print at 240ppi there is no need to use this fairly random figure. The 300ppi relates to what the eye can perceive, and doubling that to 600ppi makes for bigger files but no visual difference. Halving to 150ppi gives a degredation that is visible to the eye.

Jackie H, what happened to the Pentax K20D? You say you will be without a camera?

We're probably talking about inkjet printers here though. My 300ppi files are printed at 2880dpi.

For publication, the same 300ppi files are used, which is very convenient.

If you're new to this, you,ve enough to elearn without adding RAW capture to the list. Stick with JPEG at the highest quality setting.

As regards other settings, centre spot focusing, maybe sharpness +1 if you like very sharp images, but it's all very much to taste. I'd go with the defaults for a while and see how it goes before making changes that might not suit your own vision of your photography.

The K10D has a 22bit A/D converter, the K20D has a 14bit one. I presume that 22bit A/D conversion with the higher pixel count would slow things down too much.