Although it may not appeal to the more traditional user, this isn't without precedent. Many camera manufacturers have produced all sorts of wild designs over the years, from art deco to special finishes, and who is to say that a gold plated Rolleiflex is any less odd, or the vast array of colours of some miniature classic cameras, now eagerly sought after in everything but the common black versions.

I'd bet that a full display in a shop of all the colour variants of the DSLR and Q ranges would make masses of sales.

It all makes my dark khaki green Q-S1 look quite modest now.

I guess it's for a particular market segment, so I'd be thinking they must have a pretty good idea who they are trying to pull into the DSLR market.

In a shrinking market, new customers are badly needed.

It's an understood bit of forum etiquette that we don't point out eBay auctions. When we spot them we take them off, for the reasons stated.

BIN is OK, but still we can all do our own internet shopping search...but we don't normally remove such links.

I shouldn't imagine many people do Vic!

I think your image can and should be whatever you want it to be Barrie.

Go for it!

If any dust was picked up then it would certainly be large compared to the size of the sensor. The saving grace is that the sensor is easily reached and a quick blow with a rocket blower should be all it needs.

I have been using the original Q for some time now and only once got a dust speck. The rocket blower removed it easily.

Just avoid changing lenses in dusty environments, always change them with the camera throat pointed downwards, always have the camera switched off.

For those who think all batteries are the same, a test on various batteries may be of interest.

http://t5r.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/e1/clonetests.htm

Although these aren't Pentax batteries, the principle holds good for our discussion here.

If you were closer, we'd book you!

The diaphragm blades are very fragile and need the right sort of lubricants, not oil for sure.

Any competent repair house should be able to fix the problem. Try Harrow Technical, Asahi Photo, and many more.

I didn't say "isn't" though Alan, if it works for someone then that's fine. It's not perfect though, fast as it is.

When is it to be used? Almost always I would think, but I do find exceptions to that in some wildlife photography and some macro work.