Only £199.00 on SRS. Lower UK price than I expected. It will be interesting to see some reviews of this thing.

http://www.srsmicrosystems.co.uk/Search/x5/Brand/Pentax/

Spot on. I did a metric ton of research before buying my K-5, and went in without any particular bias as I had previously used Canon DSLRs but wasn't married to the brand since I had no investment in lenses (one of the cameras I used were on long term loan from my father and the other belonged to my wife). Pentax came out at the top of my list for a number of reasons, but could basically be boiled down to the quote above.

The fact that most people choose Canon or Nikon has exactly nothing to do with the quality of the products. I'm not knocking them either, they both make fantastic cameras. The fact is, though, had I done less research I would have been more likely to choose a Canon or Nikon. Most 'average users' don't do very much research. Pros will of course do more research but are probably more likely to choose Canon or Nikon due to the availability of the top end full frame models. However these models did not feature in my choice of brand because a) they are mostly out of my price range and b) I emphatically was not looking for something big and bulky.

You mention being a Skoda man. Just as one example the Skoda Yeti knocks spots off the competition from other brands, as even Top Gear acknowledged. but still, most people will choose those other brands.

The differences between DSLRs in similar price bands these days are minimal. The specs, performance, image quality etc. are often so close it comes down to splitting hairs. Pentax, being the underdog, have to work just a little big harder at putting out products that represent excellent value for money. It they stop doing that their user base will diminish rather than grow. That's the reason the last few models Pentax have come out with have received pretty glowing reviews for the most part. If these last few Pentax DSLR models have one thing in common, it's that you get just a little bit more bang for your buck than from competitors. It may be just a tiny edge, but it's there.

Canon and Nikon have little motivation to add that tiny edge because they already have the lion's share of the market, and giving you a little more bang for your buck would only reduce their profit margins.

Actually I don't doubt it, but no matter how good something is there's always room for improvement. I shoot in low light a lot so I'm likely to notice any shortcomings the existing AF system has more than most.

Yes, one of the guys in the camera club, who has become my most frequent shooting partner other than my wife has a D90. I'll just say it isn't the easiest to get to grips with...

...As for what I'd like to see from a K-5 improvement, I could make a list but the only make-or-break item on it would be faster, more accurate AF, especially in lower light conditions... but that may have been mentioned before.

I've also used all of them, as I frequently help members of my camera club with their cameras when it comes to finding the right settings. So I've used not only Canon and Nikon but Olympus, Sony, various models of bridge cam etc. too.

I have to say the quick setting screen on the Pentax K-5 is brilliant, and the rest of the menu system is not to shabby in comparison to others either. There are certain DSLRs I could name out there from certain big brand names where a simple operation like setting the ISO has been made just about as unintuitive and long-winded as it possibly could be. Granted this is an entry level model but still, you shouldn't have to upgrade your camera just to be able to set ISO in less than a minute.

No hot shoe is what killed it for me. With a P-TTL hot shoe and assuming the image quality turned out to be decent enough for a camera of its class, it would have been an almost definite buy as a backup camera for me. I have only hesitated to buy a Fujifilm or Lumix bridge cam thus far because those which do feature a hot shoe are obviously not compatible with my P-TTL flash.

If it had a hot shoe I'd pay £300 for it. Without one I'm not sure I'd pay anything. They can put a hot shoe on the Q but not on this?

I use the Marumi DHG CPL filters and have found them excellent. They are among the highest rated in this test from Lenstip, too: http://www.lenstip.com/115.4-article-Polarizing_filters_test_Results_and_summary...

They're not the cheapest but they do pop up on eBay for a nice price from time to time, which is where I got hold of mine.

Didn't know they had engine numbers.