Well I love my dedicated controls - perhaps we need to evolve a specific manually-controlled lever to engage that one

Thats clearly a very useful little camera to have Philip! I can appreciate how it might encourage more picture taking - I imagine it makes the process all very painless.

I especially like your telephoto shots here - the perspectice compression works very well, and there is impressive shaarpness with no obvious camera shake - and I'm assuming you were hand-holding.

The wider ones with skys clearly exceed the dynamic range of the camera - but then the DR of any camera may have benn challenged here. Do you think the results would have been different with your DSLR?

These upgrade choices are always completely personal - no one's factoring and weighting of different 'improvements' will be the same. Smeggy wrote above about the generation of models before his K5s, and he valued strongly the higher IQ. I happen to value strongly the range of camera operation and picture control features that my K7 share identically with the K5 - I value this more than the IQ increase - so because I get 'my value' at such a good price I'm content. I don't 'need' a K5 or K3 for now.

I know what I value most with my camera and photography can change in future - when my personal 'value needs' for features and IQ on a newer model exceed my 'contentment value' with the K7, then its time to upgrade. But for now I take great pleasure when I suceed and get a high quality image out the K7, and expecially so when that high quality is seen and recognised by others

Oh come on, really, not ... every serious photographer's checklist has included detailed preparations and planning sections - its never a case of going any old direction, you need to consider sun direction, tide tables, season, wind currents, not to mention compass calibration, ordinance survey map marking-up, tourist information - can't you see the list is endless!

K7 still alive & kicking! The Samyang is a very substantial, well built item, and so it makes a great match for our K7 / K5 / and now K3 cameras.

Could be your best excuse to upgrade The normal 'get around' for this problem is the self-timer - I don't know the Kr, so this may still be possible with auto-bracketing activated.

The K7 / K5 series models have extensive drive mode options covering most of the bases - you can set remote control firing with auto-brackets, and you get the same detailed bracket options as shutter button operation. If I was serious about tripod shooting, and auto-bracketing is part of serious tripod shooting I think, then it is a great reason to upgrade, if that is a suitable route for you to take at this time.

There's been discussions before about whether to use auto-bracketing or not, with some advocating the manual method of changing the controls yourself between each shot. I believe the combination of auto bracketing (very fast rapid images close together in time) with remote control and mirror up (the least interference with camera stability possible) is the ultimate workflow.

It also depends on what programmes you use, or combination of software options .... If I'm using Photoshop for layers, or I need to save selections for example (I might be thinking of coming back to the shot in future) then I'd go for .psd - this will save losslessly at a smaller filezise than the same image in TIFF.

But if I have finished the layer work (or other PS specific stuff) then I'll 'flatten' it and save as a TIFF - most useful if also needing to adjust something in another programme. Ultimately the TIFFs & .psd files will end up in the same category - a 'Master Working' file for archiving.

They are most useful if you want to produce more JPEGs copies in future, say at different sizes or for new specific print sizes, but you've got the advantage of being able to make fresh adjustments without quality loss (such as on the JPEGs like Smeggy was saying above).

So for me, I have a storage system that saves the DNG's immediately, then another folder for 'Master Working' TIFFs / .psd, then collections of max quality JPEGs (for printing) and higher compressed JPEGs for web use (like the forum / facebook etc). I do keep them all for now, and backup using DL DVD discs. In future I may revise this and choose to delete 'Master Working' files maybe from years past, if there's no possibility I'd ever revisit the shots.

Richard, I'm always happy to revive positive reports on the Samyang 14mm - I must be the most vocal advocate of the lens on this forum

I've used it now for nearly 18mths, and build quality and robustness have proved every initial impression to be correct, and more - its my most used lens and honestly, on close inspection I don't think anyone would believe it had ever been out of its box!

It has given me all I wanted - a great practical field of view and edge to edge resolution that is needed for composing wide angles with tight framing and foreground detail under the nose.

It is totally reliable in operation and metering is perfect using the 'a' setting. Most discussions here about wide angles invariably tend towards strong recommendations of the various zoom options available, and they all have their passionate supporters - but I am one firm believer in the wide angle prime, and this one get my wholehearted thumbs up.

Here's a few images I've taken over the months :









































The lens was a bargain, in my view, new at £289 - there's another thread here where a member is looking for Samyang lenses, but there's really very few available secondhand - must be plenty of contented owners!

Very good night shots, 1st especially which benefits from some tone in the sky. The 18-55 is really shining there I wonder if perhaps you've pushed the sharpening just a bit too much?

Good luck with your future photography and I'm sure you'll always keep an eye out on what Pentax are up to.