You can't future proof, so it's a constant upgrade path, just like it is with digital cameras.

Photoshop is the "industry standard" and Elements will do virtually everything we could hope for. However, CS5 has some nice and sometimes useful things that professionals may require.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150852599657818.509840.790667817&typ...

A selection of Q images. The Distortion Correction is very effective.

I wouldn't bother with the polariser at all, you're likely to get dreadful vigetting and with ultra-wide lenses streaking in blue skies.

That is, if you can find any blue skies today!

Yes and I suspect that if any are still available new then the price will be very high. I would check with a professional dealer or The Widescreen Centre in London to see what is around.

Second hand prices could vary from very expensive to someone throwing out perfectly good kit because they don't need/understand what it is.

The biggest problem I see is what you do if you open it all up and it's damaged or doesn't work. It's just not worth the hassle when suppliers like SRS offer such a great back-up service.

That's a fair point about the menus, but you'll be hard pressed to find many truly compact cameras with a viewfinder these days!

It's not really a question of loyalty - people will buy whatever they want, from whichever manufacturer provides it. The only limitation we have here is that it's Pentax User, so other marque discussions are considered off-topic.

As for compacts, I now have the Q in my pocket, or the W90 when the rain comes or the circumstances may need something more resistant to damage.

Picture quality of the Pentax compacts can be very good, especially in the closer range. High-end compacts tend to be anything but compact and don't fit the pocket too well any more. At that point I jump to the DSLRs instead as I reason that if I have to carry a camera bag it might as well have a DSLR in it.

Very compact cameras are much more difficult to take good pictures with, often because they are difficult to hold still. They need a tripod more than a DSLR does, which defeats the purpose. But with care, we have made super A3 prints from various compact cameras, including the Pentax range.

That's not actually what I said. What I said was far more complex than that and relates to the way the camera sees things, how we view and interpret them and what the photographer does.

"The camera never lies" is a common phrase, and in a literal sense that is true as it's an inanimate tool. However, it depends what the photographer does, why they do it, in what context they present it...etc.

I know that IT have a "To Do" list and I guess it's quite a long one. priorities will depend upon how easy it is to implement and how much demand has been shown. Some things are done very quickly when it's straightforward and obviously a benefit.

I think there are things that could be done in the Gallery and it's been mentioned a few times, but I will certainly mention it again.

And this place is just as public, so no picking on each other here please....