What Mike said, there Brill!

Cheers Alan, just a pre-sharpen and a bit of clarity to cut thru the glooom and maybe a little pop but not really touched the colour, I actually don't like it very much, probably because Skiddaw and Blencathra in the background are just misty blobs but I suppose it's atmospheric?

Last Saturdays walk, a bit of a grueller!
Only took two shots all day as it happens the murk never really lifted all day and the weather was generally a bit Meh!

Anyway, here's the route we took, for those interested, form the bottom at Honister to the top of the map at braithwaite is just over ten miles...





This was taken at about seven in the morning, when it was still quite cold and there was a bit of colour left in the sky but after that it was just plain old murky Borrowdale and the camera never came out of the bag again!

Dalehead Summit looking down the Newlands Valley

Use the hood Luke, use the Hood... (Paraphrasing Star Wars)
Seriously it really is not all that bad into the light, far better than anything I've used with a 77mm front element anyway, you can get away with a lot but that really deep hood is there for a reason...

Hear you there Steve! I lose more images than I sell! I actually had a guy email me to ask if I could make my watermark smaller so that he could download them for screensavers without having to crop them
The 50-135 autofocus speed is adequate, it can focus from infinity to a couple of feet equalling an approach speed of around 300MPH, obviously it's no good when the subject gets too close, even the mighty Canon only rate Lenses focusing on subjects travelling close to the camera at forty miles per hour or so, so it's in good company, the throw of the Pentax long lenses is long, it's great for sensitivity/accuracy but lousy for out and out speed. When they hunt they go so far out of focus they just give up! Pentax really do need to cuddle up with Sony and ask nicely if they can implement their in Body focus limiter, it would make all of the long toms in the range soo much better...

Not so sure that "Full Frame" does make commercial sense George, nor 645, well not on it's own anyway, thats why Hassle-blad are always struggling I guess? As part of a range maybe, maybe it would be there to stem the tide of users leaving? As an individual product if it manages to come in on budget and just not make a loss, it could be deemed worth it, the profit as we all know is in the K-S1's of this world but if you just make them, you lose the enthusiasts eventually, nice as a K-S1 is I couldn't have it as my only camera, there does need to be a higher end I guess? It's probably not for me but I hope they follow the Canon model and keep re-iterating the high end APSC and not the Nikon model where they deliberately cripple them, forcing the enthusiast on to the "Full Frame" offerings with the associated extra costs of the "Full Frame" wide and standard lenses, it's sort of what makes me think there is not much profit in "Full Frame" unless you shift a lot of other gear with it, ok well, you do have to have those lenses. The APSC and M4/3 end of the market is pretty congested and I think Nikon want to shift their customer base to a higher end (Image quality wise) product where they are unlikely to lose them to mirrorless but they reckoned without the mighty Sony throwing mud at everything in an effort to see what sticks, they smell profit somewhere in cameras and are like a bloodhound on the chase, nothing will stop it!
Don't think Mike P has a "Full Frame" model ... yet, well not up until last week anyway!

Well having had eight or is it nine "FF" (Hate the term!) I have realised I don't need another, and am unlikely to buy one unless their is no alternative. (APSC is doomed! :lol I'm just not a good enough photographer to exploit it properly, I really don't want to go down the road of all that heavy expensive glass again but for those that really do, t's a good idea. (I could be persuaded by a "FF" mirrorless with IBIS using the space inside the redundant mirror box for that, with a really good EVF and a decent battery!) For Pentax/Ricoh to make it, then it will have to be attractive to the Japanese market I'd think? It's 90% of their business, which may mean it's quirky? (Maybe they think they would sell enough of a K3 heavy worldwide though, only time will tell here)? "FF" Is still hovering around the 5-10% of the market so lets not get carried away, they are right to study hard to see if it's worth it for them, the Market share of "FF" may well of crossed a threshhold, which makes it viable for Pentax/Ricoh to look at it in a "New light" (Sorry! new light is born, CORNY!) They will be looking at a pretty high margin product here I'd say, as it will not sell in any great numbers despite all the shouting, around half that say that Pentax must bring one to bear have already bought something else and unless it ticks every single one of their particular boxes they won't buy it and if your already using something else then why should you? Another fairly large propportion of the noise brigade will find enough reasons to hate it when released to not buy it either because it does not fit their needs, it's not a D810 or a D4s etc etc etc. So we will be left with a fairly smalll percentile of Pentax users who form a vey small percentile of the Camera market buying a product that fits their particular niche, a very small number indeed! I'm not saying they should not do it but they would not want to do it at the expense of the 645 or would they? Can both co-exist? Both are Niche products, on the plus side here, Pentax Ricoh do not seem to be afraid of the small run, the niche nor the unusual! Just spitballing and being a bit of a Devils advocate, also remember Nikon say it took them four years to to raid the D600/D4 parts bin to make the Df!
So if you want it, be careful what you wish for and be patient for just a bit longer

Well here appears to be confirmation of a FF for next year now, tentative though it is! (From a French source). can't think of any other reason for the 80-200 F2.8 anyway?
Still another thing to mull over, personally I will be happy enough with my K3, I'm just not a good enough photographer to be able to exploit FF properly but I look fwd to buying everyones APSC Lenses!

I see the 16-85 as the modern replacement for the 17-70
The two bigger zooms are just what is needed but with a 80-200 F2.8 and a 150-450, will the 50-135 and 60-250 stay in the range? Even given the differing formats is there any reason for such duplication?
Could it be that Pentax/Ricoh will put SDM to bed?
They will really only need an F2.8 standard zoom and a wise angle one, which could be released at the same time as the bosy I guess?
The american cousins would be happy...

That long zoom looks suspiciously Nikon to me?
The 70/80-200 looks very Tamron, guess we'll just have to wait Mike!
Reckon I'll end up with a DA* 300 anyway, as I think either of these could be a little beyond my Price/weight range...
Never know though...

http://photorumors.com/2014/09/16/pentaxricoh-announced-the-development-of-three...#more-61994