Developed with Tokina.
The Pentax lenses have their SMC coating, and they behave like all the best Pentax lenses. The Tokina lenses don't have the SMC
The SMC-DA 12-24 is a Tokina/Pentax lens - and a very fine one indeed. Build quality is very good and the optical quality is excellent.
The fact that Pentax have been able to release an extremely impressive set of lenses in so short a time is a good thing.

Don't expect the new f2.8 lenses to be cheap though - they are Pentax * lenses, and weather sealed like the K10D. You only have to look at the price of second hand star lenses to realise the prices... but then for the equivalent Canon L-series lenses I still reckon you'd pay more.

Matt

The *ist-D is still more of a pro-spec'd camera than the DS and DL. Until the K10D arrives it's the only body that has a grip option, but now it's long discontinued. In fact Pentax stopped it when the DS came out, strangely enough.

Hopefully the K10D will have all that the *ist-D has and some... but there is still some doubt over a few features, and the *ist-D may still be better suited to some. Time will tell

Most *ist-D users are drooling over the K10D, but whether they'll sell their *ist-Ds we'll have to wait and see...

Matt

Daniel,
You can upgrade to 3.7.5 without affecting your right to an upgrade Version 3 to 4 is an upgrade
Personally, I was looking at upgrading from 3LE to 4Pro
(Even 3Pro is faster than 3LE)
Matt

The Pentax Photobrowser3 can convert from PEF to DNG
http://www.pentax.co.jp/english/support/digital/photo3.html

Ditto Daniel's comments regarding C1. They say "end of Q1" for the C1LE v4, and "end of Q2" for C1Pro v4. DNG is slated for inclusion in version 4... but as you say, Phase One seem pretty prompt at supporting new cameras

...it won't stop me getting a K10D though

Matt

Barry,
Even though the PEF format hasn't changed significantly, the RAW convertors match the camera ID with what they know. The K100D is a relatively new camera, and so you probably need an Adobe Camera RAW update for Elements

If that fails, you can download the stand-alone Adobe Camera RAW convertor and convert to Adobe's DNG format which should load into PSE.

Hope that helps!
Matt

Looks like we cross-typed Joshua

Here are some links:
https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2343
https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2482

And this is the main (huge) topic:
https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1724

Plenty of reading there

Matt

Barry,
If the JPGs work for you - don't worry
RAW gives you:
* Some exposure lattitude. The conversion software will allow over/under exposed images to be corrected.
* Higher detail colour. RAW is 12-bits per colour (4096 values) vs JPG's 8-bits (256 valus). Converting from RAW to JPG usually has better colour fidelity, especially in colour critical applications, but from RAW to 16-bit TIFF is better still.
* More control over white balance. WB can be corrected at the conversion stage. For some shots (mixed lighting in particular), it is possible to take one RAW file, convert it several times (once for each light source) then blend the whole lot in Photoshop.
* More control over sharpening. Once the camera has sharpened the image into a JPG, there's not much you can do to "unsharpen" it properly. RAW allows you to take exactly what the camera output and apply your own choice of sharpening, depending on the image.
* Hot pixel removal. If a hot/stuck pixel gets converted into a JPG in-camera, it usally appears as a little blob/cross. Good RAW conversion software will automatically detect stuck pixels and remove them cleanly. This is particularly an issue in very long exposure times, and as the CCD ages (I have two or three stuck pixels after 3 years).

But yes, it's more hassle, and takes more space on the card.
Last, but not least, generally don't use the supplied software Something like Phase One's Capture One will give far better results!

There is another thread on this subject... I'll try and dig it up.
Matt

Daniel,
Just a point - one has to be a linear polariser. The other can be circ or linear.
Have fun!
Matt

Love the forest shots Daniel!
Matt

To answer the original question...

Looking at the K10D manual you require two AF360/AF540 flashes for remote operation.
In fact, you'll also notice from the manual that the K10D only supports the AF360 and AF540 (all the older flashes have popped off the list). Presumably they're using the *ist-DL type connectivity, and not even *ist-DS or *ist-D connectivity.

Manual here: http://www.pentax.co.uk/downloads/photo/uk/K10D/K10D_ENG.pdf

If they release a firmware upgrade for the K10D, or if there's some other way around it, then I'll consider "upgrading", but for now I'm sticking with the *ist-D
(I even have an AF360 and an AF540, but I use both in wireless mode - so I'd need three of them to work with the K10D!!!)

Matt