Oh come on guys ! When I bought my K7 Jessops had messed up their stock control and could only find an empty K5 box - and the K7 fitted in perfectly even all the accessories and cables etc were the same.

Now, the list of completely identical things between the two cameras is hugely longer than the list of differences.

The additional performance is significant of course, more so for those who will extract the most from it - but the reality is that it is basically the same camera - an upgrade in certain IQ respects, but the same camera in the vast majority of aspects.

Do you not think that someone looking to upgrade in an economic manner would be better to keep on getting all they can from the K7, bypass the already superseded K5 and hold on until the K5II has become the discontinued bargain, with all the longterm advantages it has over the standard K5?

No! I'm always in constant need of reminder that in autumn I should try some shots of fallen leaves - in Spring why not get out and shoot some newly budding crocuses - in winter I should dust off that camera bag and get close-up to that giant slug in my garden - and in all seasons there's a wealth of photogenic spots in the amazingly wide range of national parks throughout the UK. Oh, and I should really keep myself dry and cosy in a brand new David Storm.... no sorry, its Peter Storm, weatherproof top.

No doubt you'll get a bargain IQ upgrade - but nothing else really. The K5mkI is very much an identical camera to the K7, in many aspects. Its not a very big leap overall is it?

The K5II has the improved AF on top which adds to the extra value. But maybe more K7 owners are holding off for the 'next big thing' - something that adds or adapts even more camera features - handling, ergonomics, operation etc ??

Well then, identifying that category of person will be important for Pentax I'd have thought - if there's actually a market there (I know all Leicas are sold before they're even made - but thats because of the niche / luxury nature of the particular brand) then Pentax should try and push in. Keep the quality and premium nature but with additional flexabiblity on lens options and a bit of a price undercut.

Those who didn't trade up a couple of years ago may be a bit like me - bargain hunters who didn't have much cash available. I got my K7 early last year - new, obviously 'end-of-line' / discontinued which made it a very attractive way into the world of digital SLR photography - and Pentax

But without further justification to invest when the actual camera is relatively fresh, it is a case of 'hold on and keep using'. My own personal 'life-cycle' for the item is simply nowhere near expiry yet.

I've stayed very near here I think, but not gone in. Is it near Ipplepen, down a tiny B road? We stayed near and drove past on the backroads when heading to Torquay.

Thanks for showing this place - next year it'll be on the visit list for sure!

Like many visits to NT or EH properties, we often only get there a bit late in the morning, or have to leave too early in the afternoon that we miss the best times of day for lighting. I think you've made the most of the rather un-ideal lighting by framing close in to the castle in all shots. I'm loath to say it bearing in mind that my shots keep being criticised for being 'too yellow', but perhaps a slight warming in tone would benefit the stonework?

My favourites are actually the last two, but I feel they are slightly overexposed - maybe half a stop less would look better?

There's some blue noise-like stuff around the window frames - it might be possible to reduce it and return the stone colour in processing.

But I think the viewpoints and framing angles are all very strong

The 'scene modes' like on other brands are more like the 'custom image settings' on Pentax - the right button on the 4-way controller brings them up. You have some basic defaults like 'landscape' 'bright' etc, then a range of finer control adjustments.

But the USER mode on Pentax goes further than this. It will record many more useful camera functions than just custom image settings. It will remember your main mode choice (like Av / Tav etc), drive mode, flash settings etc etc. This makes it very useful for having the camera instantly ready for a particular type of shooting - eg I use mine for bracketed shots in Av mode for HDR images. You can be shooting normally, then quickly switch to USER and one press of the shutter will fire off 5 brackets. No need to dip into the menus

The first generation of FF digital bodies probably continued the design characteristics of the top pro film slrs, which were bigger for a variety of reasons, mostly high speed motor drive and additional controls added for efficient handling and adjustment while shooting.

The film size obviously didn't affect this, it was all extra control and ergonomics. Now there's more options as to the design and user targeting. The traditional user base of pro spec DSLRs, the paparazzi etc or commercial studio people, will presumably continue to value the added control and handling of larger bodies (especially when used with long wide aperture lenses).

It is less clear who will place such value on smaller FF bodies, which will by design continue to provide most of their fine control through menus. Advanced users choosing FF surely are not the sort of people who will be content to operate on 'auto' modes?

I should be able to get these colours improved I think - maybe because on the first conversions I was not in sRGB I couldn't see the true results, and its carried through the chain and become stronger on the final jpegs.

I'll certainly go back David and pull the exposures down also - I did increase the brightness and I thought the overexposed skies were within reasonable limits of what could be recovered. Maybe I'll have to sacrifice more blue with the captures I've got, as Will was saying earlier. But I'll cool down the WB as well overall.

When I've got these adjustments ready I'll put them up on the gallery. Thanks to all for the helpful info !

OK - lets try again! This is about as 'original' as I can get - a straight RAW conversion, plus small saturation boost, a bit of NR & sharpening. I've switched the working profile to sRGB (from ProPhoto) and also maintained sRGB in PS Elements, where I saved the web version JPEGs.

I hope this is an improvement in all respects!

Thanks again for your impressions - Nigel