pschlute, that is very interesting I've not heard of using a DS screen to solve the K10D's metering issues before. Where did you get your DS screen from and was it expensive?


Any reviewer who says the K10D screen is not interchangeable is wrong, and probably just hasn't read the spec sheet. I believe all the Pentax DSLR screens can be changed, although only the K10D and I think the *istD are actually specified as such.


IIRC Pentax make a grid pattern screen for the K10D. Also there are a few companies making split prism manual focus screens although these mess up spot metering some (centre weighted and pattern metering are ok).

if you're in the UK check out www.dlab7.com

very reasonably priced (as in about half the price I can do them for with my ink-jet) and the quality is superb.

Bare in mind that monitor calibration is actually MORE important if you're having someone else do your printing. If it's your printer you can faff around with the various settings until what is on the screen is close to what comes out on the paper. It costs a bit in consumables to get set up but once you're there it's all good.

You can't really do that with a lab so you need to be confident your image is close to what will appear on a calibrated screen/printer.

As John said you need somewhere to put it. I use www.photobucket.com for all my image hosting. The basic account is free and it does just what it says on the tin. Also it provides links for you to copy and paste with the
tags already in place to make posting images easier.

I have no affiliation to that site other than using their service and finding it to be good. I have never had any problem with them so consequently haven't bothered to try anyone elses. There might be better out there, but photobucket does the job.

Gentlemen please! settle this like Gentlemen, dawn tomorrow, rapiers to first blood. You may, if you wish, use Ltd primes in place of rapiers, since they are probably sharp enough.

if you keep the shutter button half pressed after locking focus then the shutter will still fire.

at least it does on mine, if this doesn't work for you we'll have to figure out what custom setting I changed to make it happen.

Alternatively if you turn off "AF on shutter button pressed halfway" in the custom functions, and set the AF button to "enable AF" then the camera focuses when you hit the AF button instead of on a half press of the shutter. In this mode the camera will fire even when out of focus (again, this works on mine).

I have yet to find a type of photography my K10D is NOT good for! And SR really comes into its own with long lenses, I no longer even think twice about hand holding 1/60th at 320mm.

The 18mm wide angle lens for System 10 (better known as the Pentax 110) has a 30.5mm thread so such filters did exist at one time. You may have fun getting one though, try www.pentax110.co.uk, he has them for $9. I don't know for certain if they are SMC or not, but the System 10 lenses are excelent so I would expect the filters to be of comparable quality.

I picked up a "digital" coated UV filter for my 110's wide angle lens from Jacobs, apparently it's a fairly common size in digicams and video cameras. Not Pentax SMC, but at least it's coated.

The viewfinder on a DSLR (any DSLR, not just Pentax) is an optical device which allows you to look directly through the image taking lens. There is no diplay screen involved, unlike the EVF on your friends Fuji, so it is not possible to use the DSLR viewfinder for anything other than looking through the lens.

The payoff is you get a brighter, clearer image more suitable for manual focusing, and there is no delay between the action happening and what you see in the viewfinder.


I suppose it is conceivable that at some point in the future someone will come up with a way to project an image onto the focusing screen for your viewing pleasure, but not yet.

Auto pict is much maligned but if you're going to use one of those modes anyway I have yet to see it pick the wrong one.

That said I agree with John, Av and M are all you need. Tv and P are almost never used on my K10D. Sometimes I use TAv.

I've never done a wedding, so I'll leave you in the capable hands of those above

What I have done is indoor Candids and all I can say is the 50 1.7 will save your life. Keep it ready at all times and expect to use it a lot indoors. If you manage to scrounge an extra body I would seriously consider having one body with the 50 1.7 on it all the time while indoors.