Do you take Paypal?

It's a superb lens, and I may be guilty of evangelism here, but, it's a bit cheaper (OK, only 0.99p) from SRS and you get free postage if you quote your PU user name when you order. If you have any problems with it, their after-sales service is second to none.

There is an excellent EXIF viewer plugin for Chrome. You just move your mouse pointer over an image and it displays the basics in the photo itself.

I still prefer FF overall though.

Sounds like a warranty repair or replacement to me. I would think it's quite easily repairable but not a DIY job that I'd like to tackle.

Best advice, talk to your supplier.

I've never checked mine, that'll give me something to do tonight while my wife is out dancing. Auto horizon correction seems to work OK though.

There's certainly no mention that I can find of electronic level calibration in the K5 manual.

I have a HTC phone, and the level in that can be calibrated. You just lay the phone flat, and hit calibrate. Pentax ought to be able to do something similar.

Well my hopes have been realized and Pentax have agreed to replace my AF160FC, so now I have nothing at all to moan about.

My dealer has sorted out all and every issue for me by replacing my two duff DA* 16-50mm lenses that suffered early life failure (early batch too), and my duff AF160FC flash which will be with me next week.

Reason enough to choose a reputable, reliable, and customer-centric dealer I think.

Who's my dealer? SRS of course.

What surprises me is that the link in the OP is still active after more than a year. I'm not really surprised that it hasn't sold yet though.

Have you tried Picturenaut, it's free.

Photomatix integrates to Lightroom. Free to try, but costs if you want to remove the trial watermark.

Well, you could view it as negative as some others have, but it's just a title. Did you read my post?

I listed some of the very few issues I've had. All have been resolved, or are in the process of being resolved. I'd call that quite positive.

My choice of title was deliberate. I'd hoped to provoke some topical discussion and apart from a few humerous diversions, it largely succeeded.

I fully expected that most contributers to this thread would actually be happy with their Pentax kit and with the eventual resolution of any problems they'd had. I know I am.

It's annoying and sometimes downright inconvenient when a camera fails, and somebody's well known law says that "if anything can go wrong, it will". IMHO, good after sales service is what keeps us happy with our Pentax kit.

I'm sure we all accept that whatever piece of sophisticated equipment you care to name, irrespective of the maker, it will have it's problems for some consumers. How those problems are fixed is what's important to me.

My experience of owning Pentax DSLR's has, on the whole, been a good one. I have had a couple of nasties that have necessitated the return of some gear due to them failing in their early life.

My AF160FC flash has been returned for repair/replacement for the second time in 2 years. It fails to fully charge. I'm hoping it will be replaced by Pentax this time, rather than be repaired again.

My first two DA* 16-50mm lenses failed with focussing issues. My third lens is perfect.

I'm very glad I chose to buy from a reputable Pro Dealer without whom I would probably have had a lot more hassle getting the items replaced. It's nice to feel 'special', and my dealer makes me feel like a valued customer to the point that I will not buy Pentax gear, or anything else they sell, from anywhere else.