If you have everything you need saved on your computer and you use a card reader, you can save anything you want onto the card. Just open the file, go to "Save as" and save the file in the appropriate drive, the card.

Perhaps it was a Borg Of Very Little Brain?

There was no option for "none of the above"!

Seriously, I wouldn't buy a "super-zoom" as I think the quality may not be too super. Although it does depend on the output required. 6" x 4" prints and web use probably will make them OK, but A3 prints for competitions, maybe not...

There is a basic problem that the quality processors, such as Transpacolor, will be more expensive. The high resolution CD (18MB files) will add around £10 to your processing cost. But the results are spot on.

If you are processing black and white films then I would suggest you do that yourself - this will be relatively cheap and the quality will be as good as your technique. If you could find a good quality second hand film scanner then it would not take too many filns before you were in pocket on the deal. A Nikon Coolscan IV would be a good choice with 2929 dpi resolution. Its 35.5MB files should be more than good enough.

You could even process C41 or E6 films at home, but that is a little more complex than b/w.

I can see only two differences between this new camera and the *istDS - it has a penta mirror viewfinder, no doubt accounting for the different magnification, and an even bigger TFT monitor screen. The Penta mirror should also make the camera lighter.

The viewfinder is an important feature for me, so I think I will stick with the proper pentaprism of the *istDS.

Before you buy a new lens, I wonder what sort of 800mm lens you have?

In general, with such a long lens, there will be problems with sharpness because of camera shake. You would need a very solid tripod and high shutter speeds.

At long distances aerial haze will reduce sharpness and contrast, so a UV filter may help, but it must be of the very highest quality to avoid image degradation.

Using the *istD with a 800mm would result in a 1200mm-equivalent, and this is very long lens territory indeed. I don't know how much experience you have had with such lenses, but I would expect a fairly long learning curve to get the best out of them.

I know what you mean, it's difficult to give answers sometimes without knowing what the experience of the writer is. Even after many years, I can misunderstand things as well as the next person....

I'm glad you're enjoying your new camera. I think digital photography has improved the standard of photography in general. It has mine for sure.

When you look at photo magazines of say the 1960s or 1970s the pictures are so very often just poor compared with what we see now.

Long may we continue to progress!

There's probably a whole generation of photographers that aren't familiar with manual focus.

With the camera set to manual focus, you turn the focusing ring on the lens until you think the subject in the viewfinder looks sharp....

This works just fine if your eyesight is up to it, but I'm not convinced that it works at all with electronic viewfinders. There are, of course, no Pentax electronic viewfinders!

Just thinking about that Canon system - there's no way I'd be using a camera that was shining infra-red beams into my eyes!

And i am very glad that we can change the focus point! I found the auto setting to be a real nuiscance, it never knew what I was trying to focus on - maybe my pictures have unconventional composition.....

I'm happy now with the centre point fixed as the focus point.