The Fuji S7000 is actually a very useful camera - I use one for pictures for eBay as it's capable of incredibly close focusing. However, the EVF is useless in bright light or for rapidly moving subjects (poor refresh rate) or for manual focusing.

The Pentax optical viewfinder is far superior.

The Program setting enables the camera to select the shutter speed and aperture according to the brightness of the scene.

Normal is an average setting that is suitable for everyday subjects.

Hi Speed keeps the shutter speed as high as possible and therefore apertures will tend to be wider. Suitable for action photography.

Depth keeps the aperture as small as possible for increased depth of field, at the expense of shutter speed, so a tripod may be adviseable in dull light.

MTF selects the optimum aperture for the lens in use to get the highest resolution possible, usually arounf f8 I would think.

The point being made was that all these things could be achieved more easily using aperture prioirty (or, to be fair, shutter prioirty if that's what is preferred)

Hope that clarifies and helps.

Threads do eventually find their own direction regardless of the original question. This is perhaps one of the good things about forums, although sometimes I agree the point gets missed.

In this case I think the question was answered and since then there has been an expansion that explains why program is perhaps not the best way to go anyway.

Some forums elsewhere (not necessarily photographic) are so highly moderated that such deviation from the point is not allowed, but to be honest that gets a bit over the top and is certainly not necessary here.

No, absolutely agree, you don't. IMHO Manual and Aperture Priority are perfectly satisfactory for every conceivable purpose.

I think it's better to ditch Program exposure modes of any kind and for the photographer to think for themselves. I don't believe it's possible to create the vision by using a program.

However, the difference could be a program that keeps the shutter speed as high as possible, for sport and action shots. Or one that keeps the aperture small, for maximum DOF.

But all these things can be achieved just as simply with either Av or Tv, as one prefers.

There's only a limited number of possibilities for a given light level.....

Hi and welcome to the forum!

I've never been totally sure that the box isn't a third party one, but the strap provided does seem to be of a Pentax design.

In any event it's a superb metal box, lockable, and I generally use mine for lens and body storage rather than for use in the field.

I do have one of those, and it's very useful, but, sadly, it's not a Speed Bag.

The real advantage of the Speed bag is accessibility -you can get at every bit of kit faster than any other bag I know.

Unfortunately they do wear out eventually.

I am looking for a Pentax Speedbag, either the original or the M version. Can anyone help?

It seems to invlove big plans and lowering costs features highly.

The phrase that eventually only Hoya-Pentax would have any capability for developing new lens modules was interesting. Looks like the rest of the photographic industry is for the chop!

I think the competition might have ideas too, so life could get interesting.