and I was hoping to be able to cover the next 'Slutfest', but I think that genre has been done already!

I would suggest the 'high key' backgrounds are a little too 'high' - the white is a bit glaring and makes it slightly uncomfortable to keep looking. I'm sure its only a matter for processing though.

John, I went on to say that a DVD disc would allow about 20mins of HD video, and that this would play on a BluRay machine. I can't see the adobe video due to low bandwidth here, but I know this applies to Sony Vegas output and disc creation - as its a format / media issue I'd imagine its the same for Premier Elements? Of course, if that programme can produce HD video that plays on a DVD machine thats great!

I am assuming the OP is talking about HD video that can be played via a DVD / BlyRay player, not an HD video file stored on a DVD (that could only be played on a computer media player). This is what our Kiwi member above was referring to also.

I can certainly verify that the K3 (and K5 / K7) do produce a video output which is 'high definition' - this is based on the pixel resolution (eg K7 is 1536x1024 at 24 rames per sec) - bit rates run around about 43,000 mbps) - on K7 / K5 .avi format this produces large file sizes, but the compression is less so editing is less demanding for computers.

K3 has moved now to the AVC format as you said - this involves higher compression, but the MPEG4 can retain higher quality at these higher compressions, giving smaller files, but its going be harder work for your computer to process them - you need a modern processor and plenty of RAM, or you may need to render (output) your projects in sections to reduce the demands on the system.

The second part of your post is not really correct - DVD does not support high definition video. The most you can get on DVD is standard PAL 720x576, and there's not much point in running bit rates beyond about 9,000mbps.

However, editors that support BlueRay disc creation will be able to output a suitable format for High Definition disc playback, and a few editors will be able to burn this to a DVD - but the DVD will only play on a BlueRay player....you'll get about 20 mins of HD video then on a single layer DVD.

The best HD format for disc play is the MainConcept .AVC at either 1440x1080 or 1920x1080 (check your K3 files properties to find the closest match to their resolution) at about 25mbps.

The best standard definition format for DVD disc playback is MainConcept MPEG-2 .mpg at 720x576.

So, the .MOV files from the K3 are definitely suitable for HD disc creation - but you need to edit and process them into the format as above and match the output format to the intended disc and playback device. Good luck with your video projects from the K3 - I'm sure the quality will be very high!

My personal recomendation for the best software for offering all the options is Sony Movie Studio Platinum

I don't think SD cards are an ideal backup media - unless you're using a K3, then the dual card slots do provide a convenient solution for this. But SD cards are still relatively expensive for storage, and they're not really designed for repeated copy / move / deleting-type operations I don't believe.

These days, power supplies permitting, it makes sense to take a small laptop of some kind - on an extended trip I would use double layer DVDs as a cheap way to copy each days shots from SD cards. You could even post your DVDs now and then to your home or to someone else as a disaster recovery method. A copy of your shots on the laptop and another on DVDs somewhere else and you could confidently re-use your SD cards as you go.

Looking good there - I guess the images have been corrected, but on the landscapes there's no significant distortion effects noticeable. The video suggests the build and quality is equal or better to the 14mm, so its looks like a great new choice for us ..... the best thing of course is the 'Pentax K' in the list of available mounts.

No, it not for Mac - 100% Windows compatable ... check it out, extraordinary piece of photo software .... (Sagelight Image Editor link )

Its an interesting combination of RAW-Converter style working plus many menu accessed panels for every imaginable photo adjustment. It doesn't use layers, but has a system of automatic masking available throughout to limit working and apply things selectively - but with no 'selections'.

Very intuitive and I highly recommend it to everyone.

Yes, incredible shadow recovery from that small file - the quality available from the RAW will be excellent. Lightroom? - hmm, I'm not so sure that would be able to cope with it

I feel a 'photo processing shootout' coming on ... I'm in

Its amazing what has been recovered here, great testimony both to the capabilities of the Sagelight software and the camera sensor ... From the photo Alastair posted who'd have thought there was any stonework to be seen under that arch?

I applied the shadow boost globally and added 'smart contrast before wiping out the effect on the rest of the shot ... so it is easy to bring back shadow boost elsewhere.

But is it really 50:50 Rob? Surely with the amount of very bright light reflecting off the water my version is the most 'realistic'?

Hi Alastair, hope you don't mind, but I had a greater effect in mind ...

here's what I could do in Sagelight 4.0, and that's only on your 500kb jpeg - I'm sure with the RAW plus some proper noise reduction and detailing after it would much better quality - but this gives you the idea. Of course there's a patch of pure black that's totally lost, but that could be 're-built' with cloning I guess

Agreed, very effective tight framing - the layout invites a wandering eye and the contrast between the mono-toned foreground and colourful boats works very well.

The deep black underneath the right bridge arch is distracting I think - if possible I would select it and try some heavy lifting shadow recovery - see what comes out!