The pedants could always look up the meaning of "sense of humour"....

Perhaps you could start by establishing whether or not every lens had drifted? If that is the case, it may well be the body. If not, then a rogue lens.

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Bearing in mind this is a Pentax forum, the likelihood is that youi'll find it difficult to find many people with a really extensive knowledge of Nikon.

I can tell you that the Nikon is heavy and bulky compared to the Pentax K-5. I can also tell you that it has its own quirks and troubles, but no more than any other DSLR.

Yes the K-5 is fast enough. A manual focus camera is fast enough for motorsports - the technique that works is to prefocus on part of the track and practice until you can release the shutter at the right moment. Accounting for shutter-lag and our own reaction time, that's just a whisker before the subject arrives at the critical point. No AF required at all. It's all about technique and practice.

You can buy slide cleaning liquids, or could. I would ask The Darkroom Ltd. for advice.

The 560mm may well be based on a similar lens, maybe even the 600mm. Perhaps the 600mm always was closer to 560mm. In any event, it has no doubt been on the drawing board for some time, just waiting for the "Go" button to be pressed.

Interesting. The innards could be the same, but would a different outer shape make it any better or worse? Who would it appeal to? What would an MX or Super A shape mean to a digital audience?

Or would they simply see an old-fashioned camera design?

Broad as it's long I think. Both will be just fine. We use canvas ones, but only because that's what was there at the time!

It's more of an enquiry, so moved to General Chat.

The best tripod will be the most substatial and solid. Hence heraviest, most expensive probably.

The manfrotto 055 with a head of your choice is a good compromise.

Sharpening is a whole subject in itself, but I have two articles here that start you off with Unsharp Mask:

https://www.pentaxuser.com/article/photoshop-sharpening-technique-262

https://www.pentaxuser.com/article/sharpening-method-in-photoshop-263