Hard as I try to be critical . . . I can't. Excellent composition & 'pose', lighting looks great too.

I'd like to know a bit more about the lighting you used, apart from the model number of the flash I mean. Did you use full or reduced power, manual or P-TTL, bounce or direct, diffuser ?

Its not likely that you will get a pro-Canon response from this forum

I think the 2 Canon models you mention may actually be one and the same. Digital Rebel is the name given to the US model. The UK 300D model is the same as the US Digital Rebel. I'm assuming then that the 350D and Dig Reb XTi may be the same but I could be wrong.

The K100D is an exceptionally fine camera which's benefits greatly from its in-camera shake reduction system making the purchase of a range of lenses for it much, much, cheaper.

Caveat emptor: The K100D has not been around long & it remains to be seen whether or not the SR system is reliable and free from gremlins.

What I need is one of the rich folk on here to buy me one. I'll be happy to try it out and report my results

FWIW: I wouldn't choose either the DL or DL2. The K100D is surely the best of the current Pentax breed and is advertised on some mail-order sites at under £500.00 which includes the 18-55 DA lens. Personally, I would save my pennies and pay the extra £100 or so for the newer model. The only problem at the moment is availibility of the K100D (in UK anyway), but that'll be fixed in time.

I wouldn't be tempted to convert a film body to digital either, unless maybe it was an MZ-S, Z1, or LX.

Generic digital is the way to go for sure.

Your existing lenses will work fine with the DL. There are limitations when using Pentax-M and older lenses which you can read about in the downloadable manual from www.pentaximaging.com

You can upgrade a (legal) copy of Photoshop to CS2 for about £150.00. I don't think PS7 has a RAW converter but check the Adobe web site. Try C1LE, if nothing else, you can get help using it right here.

Regards,

You are a bit too economical in the information department.

It would help us to help you if you told us which version of Photoshop you have. Some versions can and some can't handle RAW format. I suspect only version CS2 can deal with PEF's from the later Pentax cameras. Capture One LE is simpler to use, you might consider downloading a trial copy.

Have you downloaded the update to version 3 of the supplied Pentax Software ?. You might find that it suits your needs better.

Cheers,

If you have Adobe Photoshop CS or CS2, it has a RAW converter buit-in and it should only be necessary to open the file in Photoshop, the converter then kicks in. Its possible that only CS2 can read your PEF files from the DL2 and you might need to download the latest raw converter from Adobe's web site for it to work. RAW converters become out of date as fast as cameras nowadays.

If you have a version of Photoshop which doesn't support the DL2's PEF format (they are not all the same) then you will need a third party converter. RawShooterEssentials from Pixmantec is free but is now a dead product since Adobe bought them. You can download Adobe's beta product, Lightroom, from their web site but you will eventually have to pay for it when it becomes a released product. I use Phase One's Capture One LE product which you can download and trial before buying. There are some other free ones too. You can also of course use the software that you got with the camera. All RAW converters 'spit out' a JPG or TIF file so you will be editing a file in one of those formats. The RAW converter simply allows you to make many adjustments & corrections beforehand whilst retaining the original and unmodifiable PEF image file.

Your post would be better placed under Troubleshooting as it has nothing to do with this thread. I expect it will have moved by the time you see this.

I suspect that the film winding issue has something to do with the fact that your mirror would seem to be locked in the up position.

Remove the lens from the body and look inside the mirror box. You should see the mirror about half way in and at a 45 degree angle. If it is locked in the up position, you will not see it, neither will you see the underside of the focussing screen.

Don't be tempted to pull the mirror down with any kind of force, you'll end up doing more damage. You could just try and tease it down gently, just in case it is simply stuck to its foam rubber buffers. You may possibly find that the shutter is also stock. Don't touch it or try and force it.

It sounds like a repair or replace job to me. Pentax UK give free estimated for repairs but you should check their web site at www.pentax.co.uk to determine if they are still able to repair your model camera. Alternatively contact www.harrowtechnical.co.uk , good luck.

I wonder if there will come a time when further development of digital sensor technology will be unnecessary and we will again see camera production runs lasting years, rather than months. Pentax's range of digital cameras are very good, but I can't imagine them ever being held in the same regard as some of the older classics like K1000, MX, LX, etc. simply becasue they didn't 'live' long enough. The D's production run was barely 2 years, I don't know exactly. Compare that with 21 years for the LX in its various forms.

I think there is still some way to go yet but it has got to happen one day that there is just no point in packing more pixels in to every square millimeter of sensor because the improvement in visible & printable resolution will be minimal, if any.

I think once the APS-C sensor is 'max'd out' pixel wise, we might begin to see 35mm sensors becoming the norm for consumer/prosumer products. After that, who knows, 2 1/4" square maybe.

Maybe not in my lifetime but, just as there is no real size constraint with film, apart from its decreasing availibility, the same may become true for digital sensors.

Just imagine the possibility of a 10" x 8" monorail camera . . . with a digital back . . . awesome. It could happen, one day. Trouble is, the battery pack would break your back. I dread to think of how many MP/GP that would work out to even at todays pixel density.

OK, understood. I did mean the clingfilm like protector.