The lack of any comments about that is quite interesting in itself. Does this mean that it's now a really low priority for us all?

:

News is curently breaking that the Pentax 645D is now on the back burner and is "no longer a priority for Pentax."

I can't say I'm surprised, and I'm certainly not surprised now we have the new merger with Hoya.

A 645D would be a low priority for me buying one as well.

Whatever next?

The alternative is to up the ISO value. I have taken some very low light shots with the 16-45mm f4 using ISO values of 800 and 1600. Plenty of noise (grain) at the higher values, but so long as the images are sharp where they should be I can live with that.

The ability to change the ISO to suit the circumstances is one of the huge benefits of digital cameras.

You need to hotlink to the images. First you upload your images to a location on the web. This could be on your own website or on a webhosting service such as pBase or Photobucket.

You copy the URL of your image and then use the Img tag (see the tags just above the text box in the Post a Reply screen) paste the URL and then close with the Img* tag.

The image should then be displayed in the forum.

Yes, this is always a problem. For this reason I carry a Pentax A20 always. Not perfect, not ideal, but capable of taking some decent shots if used with care.

The DSLR is much easier to use. If it's a minimal kit that's needed then just the K10D with its 16-45mm lens is all I take. Then I make do.

This is absolutely a critical point. The quality of the better lenses becomes ever more important the more you enlarge, or indeed the more you crop. A3 printing is much more demanding. A4 is pretty much the native resolution of the K10D without interpolation.

However, equally well very cheap or very over-specified lenses can show up their deficiencies at even quite small sizes. Going from the 16-45mm to a super zoom is a pretty dismal direction to take IMHO.

It doesn't take very long to change a lens....

SR will use some power, but I leave it switched on (except when on a tripod or other solid mount) and it doesn't seem to cause any problems.

There will probably be a price difference, but my vote goes for the Pentax lens every time. In terms of quality, compatibility, ergonomics....

Others will feel free to disagree...

It really is much better to use A series lenses or later.

You can then use all the camera's facilities properly and it is so much more convenient.