TBH they have a load of superfluous stores which should have been closed years ago. They bring these things on themselves.

All that complaining about film sales dropping is rubbish too, you can hardly buy film in a Jessops even if you want to. Everything they have is digital.

I suspect digital camera retailers and manufacturers in general are in for a rough ride in the near future. Digital cameras have hit a level of capability where the average man in the street has a good enough one already and feels no need to upgrade. That will lead to a drop in digital camera sales, since only the accident prone and the really geeky will need a new camera every year.

This is particularly true of compacts, but it's becoming true of DSLRs as well. I can't imagine a spec upgrade to the K10D which would cause me to buy a new DSLR inside the next 5 years. The difference is that Pentax have a very good chance of relieving me of my hard earned cash in exchange for some shiney DA* glass, even if I have no intention of buying either K1D or K20D.

looks like you've done your good deed for the week there Tim! nice one.

Nice to see the MRT at work, just hope I never have to see them up close.

I wouldn't use that branch anyway, the one down the road in Cowpatborough is much better stocked

functionally it works exactly the same, except the K10 uses the green button instead of AE-L in this mode. Unfortunately somewhere along the line there is a problem with the K10's metering in stop down mode so the reading you get isn't accurate. It is consistent for a given aperture though so it is possible to get used to it and work around it. I use my Tamron macro lens on my K10D with no problems, despite being unwilling to pay the current going rate of £60 on ebay for a KA adaptall mount.

surely they'd both need to be linear for that to work? I thought the whole thing about using circ polarisers on AF cameras was because the system has a linear poleriser in it and therefore can be confused by adding another one (same variable ND effect).

Welcome Rae,

If you want a protective filter, it's best to use a UV filter not a skylight, since UV's are transparent while Skylights have a slight colour cast.

my feeling on UV filters is this

they have no impact on resolution that I have ever been able to detect, for this reason most of my lenses wear one for protection (note I said most)

It's only most and not all because they can cause flare, ghosting and loss of contrast under certain conditions. I find the effect to vary between lenses, for example my 18-55 kit lens has a UV on it nearly all the time while my 80-320 seems to loose a lot of contrast with one on.

I would also be inclined to use a UV filter when on the beach, at a party or any such similar situation which might increase the risk of gunk getting on my front element.

well under normal circumstances I might easily be called a Microsoft hater, but credit where it's due that's very impressive.

The implications of that software for my Dad's job is mind blowing. He is a land surveyor and has already been using photo registration for some time. The difference is that his photos are registered onto 3D survey data gathered by a total station (such as the Pentax R300). That thing is registering photos onto one another. I wonder how accurate the model he showed at the start of the photosynth bit is.

do you have reason to believe they are built in the same factory? or is this an assumption?

I ask because I agree with you 100%, IF they are from the same factory then they are the same flash and you should buy whichever is cheapest. To use different components this way would probably cost many times more than it saved.

IF they are from different factories, that's a whole different ball game.

As I have stated before, although I am arguing the case for the Pentax I'm basically being devils advocate. If I was given £181 tomorrow to spend on a flashgun then it would be the Samsung 54, the Sigma 500 Super or the Pentax 360 in that order.


Don, I'd be careful if I were you, there are quite a lot of Golf enthusiasts who would probably be calling for your head for suggesting that their beloved motor resembled a Talbot Horizon!

I didn't say the Pentax was certainly better, I only said it was the safer choice.

here is my reasoning:

All evidence seems to suggest that the flashes are functionally the same, therefore there are no compatibility issues. We can extrapolate that they are at least built to the same design, which leaves two possibilities:

1. They are both built in the same factory and some of them get Samsung stamped on them at the end of the line, some get Pentax. In this case they are actually the same flash and will have exactly the same likelyhood of going bad. This is how the Samsung lenses work as I understand it, so it seems likely to be the case.

2. The two companies make their own flashes, but to the Pentax design. In this scenario we have one company with 30 years experience of camera gear manufacture and a very good record, and another company with lots of experience of general electronics but which has never made a flash gun before. This scenario also introduces the possibility that the components in the Sammy might be cheaper, hence less reliable.

We currently have no evidence to confirm or refute either hypothesis, so all we can say is based on probability. In either case, Pentax make Pentax flashes and can be expected to perform as they always have. In one scenario, Samsung are doing the manufacture themselves and are therefore an unknown quantity.

Therefore, Pentax is the safer choice in the same way as a car with a full service history is a safer choice than an identical car which looks to be in good condition.

note also that I don't think the Pentax is safer by far enough to justify twice the price, just that it is safer.

The Pentax is certainly the safer choice, the only question is just how much safer and does it justify the extra cost.

In a camera I'd say yes, in a lens, maybe depending on the difference. In a flash which is nearly double the price for the Pentax badge I'm afraid I'll be buying the Sammy if I ever scrape the money together.