Agreed - hardly worth opening if it's just Spam. Now, if it were egg and Spam; egg bacon and Spam; egg bacon sausage and Spam; Spam bacon sausage and Spam; Spam egg Spam Spam bacon and Spam; Spam sausage Spam Spam bacon Spam tomato and Spam; ... with an attachment of singing Vikings ...

Steve

Oh dear. So I won't be able to order a green and pink striped K3iii with flippy screen, 26 programmable user-modes, 56K video, 3 interchangeable sensors and hand-carved by artisans out of a single block of hardwood from a sustainable forest.

I'll just have to make do with a marzipan pineapple slice... no, make that two .

Steve

Interesting. Is it the logical follow up to the 'you can order any colour you like' Q's and the Ricoh thing (can't remember the name) where you bought half a body then attached your choice of lens/sensor combination?

It certainly ties in with the rumour that there will be 6 different varieties of the K3iii as per this thread. It calls the bluff of those people who say "I'd have bought it if they had included X and not bothered with Y so I'm off to brand B" when a new model comes out. And it will make the second-hand market interesting!

I would hope (and expect) that SRS and similar would have a role, at least as a front end for orders and as part of the 'relationship chain' between users/potential customers and Ricoh. And while 'build to order' is the way I went for PCs a while ago, it ain't for everybody so there's still a place for some standard models (i.e. sets of options) on real shelves. Perhaps retailers could negotiate favourable prices from Ricoh for multiple copies of what they think will sell well in their market. So as a customer I would have the choice of a full-price camera that is exactly what I want and wait for it to be made or a cheaper version that isn't quite what I want and get it now. What a choice!

Steve

Both. Contrails are a known source of cirrus clouds. There is even a formal name for it - contrail cirrus (someone wasn't being very creative when they thought of that one!). Contrail cirrus has an impact on climate (and thus climate change) because it affects the balance between incoming radiation from the sun and outgoing radiation from the earth's surface and atmosphere. So even hydrogen-burning aircraft would not be climate-neutral if they flew at altitudes where contrails could form.

Nice photos of an interesting phenomenom .

Steve
PS: I used to move in circles where some people were thinking about things like this.

Old - perhaps. But elderly - never!!!

He moves a lot better than I ever have...

Steve

When considering AF tracking, shouldn't the performance of the camera and the lens be considered separately? Even the world's best body for tracking isn't going to do well if the lens doesn't let it (heavy focus group, long throw etc.). Similarly, even the world's best lens for tracking isn't going to do well if the body doesn't let it (poor tracking algorithm, sparse focus points etc.).

No comment from me on specific bodies and lenses. I haven't tried to track birds in flight for a long while (nothing to do with the Pentax kit), attempts at insects in flight are done with manual focus (a lot of luck involved, I doubt if even the world's best AF system could handle it) and as for macro... the last thing I want is for the subject to move!

I'll drop my head below the parapet now as I head for my hole...

Steve

Round here, you can use an authorised contractor to do the work rather than the local council. They would have to satisfy council criteria for working on a highway and get a licence for the specific work. Then the work must be checked by the council to ensure it meets their specification. Whether a contractor or the council does it, you have to pay for it of course.

Stevce

After an enforced break due to Christmas and other things, a window of time and opportunity for kitchen photography appeared a few days ago. So the kitchen macro kit was brought out. But what to photograph? Well, Mrs L's houseplants are still flowering furiously so it was a chance to try to get a better photo of one that has been in flower continuously since first photographed in October. It's a streptocarpus (most of them are...). And here it is. One day, I'll try using a white background. But for the moment, it's still black at the back .

K3 + Sigma 70mm macro. First is a stack of 24, second a stack of 61 (shots every 1mm).

Thoughts, comments welcome as usual.

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Steve

Wouldn't sell my Q lenses for the world. But I was on the lookout for an 06 last year (and for a while previously), drew a blank in the UK and ended up buying one from Japan via the usual auction website. Claimed to be new and certainly no reason to doubt it. Absolutely no problems with the transaction, no extra costs and arrived much quicker than expected. That might be your best way of getting an 06.

Steve

How charming - a charm of goldfinches.

Steve