Interesting Bernard, I avoided varifocals as I thought they might be a problem with the SLR viewfinders as well.

When doing table-top stuff I actually wear the glasses I use for the PC and that works well. The K20D has the dioptre setting adjusted to suit that.

Well, no need to check for defects as there are not very likely to be any, just set it up as you wish and go out and enjoy it.

Then let's see some of your results!

I'm not so sure that the Box Brownie is a good example of a useful viewfinder, the frame finders are probably easier to use.

I'm short sighted and it makes using the back screen incredibly easy, without need for any glasses at all.

Viewfinders on compact cameras are not usually much good, with some classic examples such as the Voigtlanders of the 1950s and 1960s, which were superb.

The forum rules are something else though, and this keeps us Pentax and Pentax-related. When we don't we stray very quickly and it usually comes to grief, so we keep that reasonably tight.

Using sRGB throughout the workflow makes life much easier and there are no colour mismatches on the web either.

Hope you like your new purchase es and we'll be interested to hear how you are getting on with it.

This is going way off-topic now, as we know other marques are considered off limits....

I suppose if a camera was to be used for, say, taking a shot every five seconds continuously, then the shutter would soon reach a very high count. This would probably be a case of "unreasonable use" that was way outside the normal design expectations.

As it is, we do take far more images than we ever did with film, so we hammer our shutters much more. By and large even with this high use level they do seem quite reliable.

To be fair, this is a photography forum and even though there are self-employed people on it their particular circumstances can be quite unlike your son's.

He really should get proper advice and also go on the HMRC course for newly or possible self-employed people.

Which is why we don't do politics on Pentax User, please try to avoid slipping into the subject, it just causes arguments and offence.

Viewfinders on truly compact cameras appear to be a thing of the past.