At least it's a lot less than another make that I know of beginning with C... somewhere around 1.6-ish (not wishing to split any more hairs or embarass myself any further).

Serves me right for not actually working it out
(Grovel, grovel )
Matt

George,
It's actually exactly 1.5, not 1.53. The angle of view calculations are always done on the diagonal across the sensor/film
Here's a diagram I did waaay back:
http://www.photon.me.uk/matt/cameras/pentax/istd_focal.htm

Matt

That's the "18-55", not "16-55" And AFAIK, the Samsung lenses don't have the SMC coating of the Pentax.
Matt

Peter,
Set the lens to 16mm, flash shows 16mm.
Set the lens to 30mm, flash shows 30mm-ish.
Set the lens to 45mm, flash shows 48mm.

Basically it's showing true focal length. That's why it's "limited" to 58mm on digital, because the angle of view is narrower than film, and that's as far as the zoom mech will go.

It had me puzzled for ages, but it's 100% right

Matt

Actually Peter, that's not right

Both the AF360 and the AF540 will "stop" at 58mm.
Put on a 16-45mm lens and the Pentax flash guns will show the length of 16 to 48.

And we all know that the flash cannot actually cover 16mm on a 35mm frame - because it's 24mm angle of view which it can do. When you stop to think about it, 58mm x 1.5 is about 85mm.

So, the flash gun is showing the actual focal length, but of course it's limited in angle of coverage between 24mm to 85mm in 35mm format, or 16mm to 58mm in APS-C digital.

So, looks like the Samsung is the same
Matt

If you use P-TTL with red-eye there is just a longer gap between preflash and main flash.

i.e.
No red eye: Preflash, tiny-gap, Main flash
Red eye: Preflash, large-gap, Main flash

HTH!
Matt

Hi,
If you can't wait for the new (undoubtedly expensive) Pentax "Star" lenses, there's a Sigma 70-200/f2.8 EX that's in Pentax fitting. The newer EX DG Macro isn't available in Pentax (as far as I know), but the older version is. I think you'll find there's at least one member on this forum who has the lens and can inform you better than I

The Sigma 100-300/f4 is also available in Pentax mount. Tamron and Tokina both do Pentax mount lenses as well.

For weddings and general portraiture, the Pentax SMC-FA 50mm/f1.4 (and the previous incarnations) is absolutely sublime. Did two weddings (my sister and a good friend. Don't normally do them as I need a serious amount of arm twisting ) - brides in both cases loved the results from that lens. I also used the SMC-F 100mm/f2.8 macro and the SMC-DA 16-45/f4. Had the 50mm on an *ist-DS, with the 16-45 on the *ist-D. FYI, shot RAW and processed them in Capture One, but now I'd use Silkypix

Another contender might be the Pentax 85mm/f1.4 (if you can find one!).

You may also want to evaluate speed of focus for sports...

Hope that helps!
Matt

I've had cheaper Sigmas and used the EX range too.

But now I stick to Pentax For me it's the bokeh - Sigma bokeh is always so "busy" and distracting. The best Pentax glass produces the most beautiful soft bokeh.

Oh yes, and the number of aperture blades - the Pentax 8 blade and 9 blade lenses are sublime. (The Limited range are 9-bladed.) And the weight too - Pentax lenses are usually smaller and lighter. The best Pentax lenses I would say are optically better than EX, but you may prefer the EX construction. It all depends...

As mentioned above, the SMC-FA 24-90, though not constant aperture is beautiful on digital as well as film. On digital it gives a very useful range. The SMC-DA 16-45 is a tad sharper though.

As for macro - I have a couple of combinations that I've used:

* The SMC-F 100mm/f2.8 is a real heavy beast and absolutely razor sharp. Probably the sharpest lens I have. Produces amazing portraits too! Picked mine up for about £200 second hand. The FA and DFA I know are as good.

* SMC-F 50mm/f1.4 with extension tubes. The f1.4 is my favourite all-rounder, especially for travelling very light. Sharp with lovely colour and contrast. On extension tubes it's very easy to focus, and stopped down works a treat.

* I also have the SMC-F 50mm/f1.7 which is excellent on extension tubes. Probably sharper corner-to-corner than the f1.4, and great for flat-field copying.

With extension tubes - make sure you get ones with electrical contacts (Pentax only make non-electrical ones)

If you peruse a site like PBase (www.pbase.com) you can search by camera and see some examples of each lens. Sometimes helpful, but bear in mind that the photographic standards vary wildly on that site

There's also Stan's Pentax site which has some interesting comments on various Pentax lenses. http://stans-photography.info/

As George says, the new "Star" lenses arriving next year promise to be awesome. (Check out some images from Pentax "star" series lenses and you'll see what I mean ) They won't be cheap though

Matt

Normally cameras only mark the EXIF data in the JPG as "please rotate". When you do an ad-hoc rotate on the LCD it's not usually affecting the stored JPG, so in a sense it's lossless.
Matt

Rule number one : don't use Windows Explorer (or is it Exploder )

Hop over to www.irfanview.com and download yourself the free image viewer/manipulation software. It'll give nice slideshows and allows on-the-fly rotation - or permanent JPG lossless rotation too

Hope that helps!
Matt