Don,
That's possible, but extremely unlikely. The marker in the EXIF is meant to show what body captured the image. Although the camera could lie about itself, I don't see how Pentax would be encouraged to make a supported change to their firmware.... their response would be "Get Apple to make Aperture work"

No doubt there's a hacker somewhere that'll cook the firmware though
Matt

AFAIK, the format is identical. However, the header includes the name of the body... and most RAW converters use this to work out the format.

I think the last one I tried I just hex-edited the name and it was read in the RAW software just fine.

Matt

If the K20D rumours are correct, then my guess is there'll be a 12-bit mode (compatible with K10D format so that it's pretty easy for RAW tools to be updated... or maybe even a K10D lookalike mode so you can get going straight away), and a 14-bit mode to support the full depth of the CCD.

Just a guess
Matt

Don - brilliant Definitely agree with that one
Matt

Photoshop Elements 2 will work on pretty well anything
(Doesn't have healing brush, but supports layers and most Photoshop plugins)
You can often find genuine editions on certain auction places...
Matt

It might be worth checking out Photoshop Elements. Not all versions were good ones, alas. Version 2 was just fine and can often be picked up for next to nothing. I believe Version 3 was ok as well.
The current version is 6 which is around £60. Some places will be selling off version 5 - so it's worth keeping an eye open

You can do most photographic related things with Elements... and you'll find a few tutorials on my website
Matt

What do you have?

Let me know and I might be able to give you a tip or two
(Most things can be done with Photoshop Elements, or Gimp.)
Matt

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/questions/endlist-now.html
Matt

I've used both and have the SMC-DA 50-200.

SMC-F 70-210 is heavy (really dense!) and usually without a hood. Really, really could do with a hood in bright light.

SMC-DA 50-200 is not much bigger than the 18-55 kit lens. Resolution, colour and contrast are all good. Hood is supplied They were going for less than £120 (Jacobs had them for £49 at one point ).

It's quite likely that the 50-200 will work very well on film (see my pbase account for the SMC-DA 16-45 on the Z1 film camera).

To be honest, it's a tough call. I personally find 200mm a little limiting - the SMC-FA 80-320 is a nice lens all round and goes well with the SMC-FA 24-90 that I use a lot.

Hope that doesn't confuse you even more!!
Matt

That's probably because you'd need two cameras, and probably a good sense of timing - as the AF beam is only flashed up for a second or two.

On the AF360 it's a red and black grid. Bit like a bar-code pattern. Interestingly it seems to retain its contrast across a wide range of distances. Because of the grid pattern the camera can focus on a flat object in the dark (it's not just illuminating the subject)

Maybe I'll try and get a capture of the AF360 focus beam...

Matt