Nice shots, sir. We're going there in February for the second year running. A very photogenic place.

An FF is not a one-off, I suspect, and is best seen as a process. There likely isn't just one camera which will satisfy all-comers once you get into FF and some fairly hefty money. For example, do you want lots of pixels and DR for landscape or fewer pixels but very good AF and burst rates for sports/action? Folks are really calling for lots of different FF cameras and it's hard to see how Pentax can satisfy them all with just one camera. Eventually, Pentax will need a range of them if they are going to get into FF seriously. Pinning hopes on one Pentax FF is asking too much, although, yes, it could well be important from the POV of upgrades and aspirations.

I'll second that, on the basis of having two smc-A lenses serviced (and one of them repaired). Nice people.

I'll be upgrading to a regular K5II from my present K5 which is one of the early ones and has seen two years of heavy use. It's already been in for refurb/repair once. I've had too many shots with focus troubles to want to continue with the autofocus on the original K5, if I can avoid it. The other forum has a shot from the K5IIs showing moire on some cacti in a landscape. That's persuaded me that the risk of moire is too high a price to say for an increase in resolution which, in most cases, won't really be missed and perhaps not even noticed. I think a weakness of the K5IIs is that it really shines in special situations where there is less risk of moire - cacti-free, er, landscapes or high-end macro, for example. But those are the situations in which a really dedicated person will probably be using a full frame camera anyway. For general use, leaving off the AA filter seems pointless. I think it's a gimmick to plug a gap in the Pentax product line and as time goes by K5IIs-shooters will be finding moire popping up in all sorts of unexpected ways. No one would be talking about the AA filter if there had been a new flagship camera from Pentax this autumn.

Lovely shots. I've always thought this an exceptionally beautiful butterfly, its red and gold hues changing with the light. But it's quite rare where I am.

Thanks, guys. Yes, I think box and return is what I will do. It's from SRS so I know their help will be top notch.

Hi there

My DA* 16-50mm jammed this afternoon on my K5. The battery was fully charged. It suddenly "froze" and I couldn't turn either the zoom or focus rings. I switched the camera off and removed it, then very gently eased the rings a little and they freed up. The assembly feels a little looser than it did before this happened, though, and when the lens is extended to 50mm there seems more play, i.e. waggling of lens barrel a bit. I could be imagining this but I don't think so. It felt very smooth and solid before the jam up.

Anyone have experience of jams on this lens? I've only just had it back from Pentax Service about ten days ago. I bought it new not long ago but found the focusing was out so that sharp pics were only possible at one aperture. They put that right, now this. Hmmn.

I'm not trying to suggest these aren't fine lenses, only that for a marque you are only as good are your last camera, or lens. If you don't make an effort to keep up with the others (which would include matching design to current production techniques), then you are simply sitting on the quayside watching the ship sail way. No lens motors and no WR in so many of Pentax's higher end lenses strikes me as baffling, before we get to video requirements. But that's up to Pentax, of course. Fortunately we can change if we have to; they will always be Pentax.

I wonder how much more mileage can be wrung out of the FA Limiteds. Eventually, you'd think Pentax might want to redo them, redesigned for modern production methods, the kinds of glass in use today, motorized, weather-proofed, in some cases optimized for video, etc. You can't go on selling the past forever, not least when Nikon and Canon are steadily building up a stock of newly designed FF prime lenses with all this in mind.

Still more than buying from a full Pentax dealer in Germany, though, at least on the three I've checked. Maybe lens sales in Treasure Island started to dry up? Selling Pentax lenses in the UK must be a pretty tough call at the moment.