thanks niblue, that shot of the bridge taken with both lenses is very interesting. Of course the angle of view difference has been explained by those knowledgeable in the subject, but there's no substitute for seeing the shots.

On the K10D and anything else with twin selector wheels, no real reason, other than habit as you say and some people just prefer to change aperture with the right hand. Everything else about the K10D is geared towards letting you work the way you want to, why not this? I'm playing devils advocate there a bit, since the new lenses have no Aperture ring anyway people should probably get used to not using one!

On the MZ-7, because it's faster. The MZ7 doesn't have a proper selector wheel, just a toggle switch which makes going from stopped down to wide open quickly a right PITA, it's much faster to just grab that aperture ring and give it a good twist.

Also its a great way to switch from any mode to Av at the drop of a hat. I've been known to use the Aperture ring to switch to Av wide open nice and quickly even on my *istDL2.

If I recall correctly, my MZ-7 behaves the same way, that is it will display the aperture with FA lenses set away from A but not A lenses.

I always assumed the digital contact on the FA series allowed the camera to read the aperture info electronically, but if this is the case I wonder why they don't make use of this ability on the *ist and K series?

I was taking moonshots through a telescope at 2000mm F10 the other night and was surprised when the focus assist started working. Still it is a pretty good telescope and it was a very clear night. That's the highest F stop I've seen K10D's AF system consent to work.

The Pentax AF system is rated to work with lenses with a maximum aperture of F5.6 or faster.

The 2x converter doubles the focal length, and therefore the F number (since the focal ratio is just focal length / aperture diameter).

This means that the combination of your new converter and the 50-200 is a 100-400 F8-11

It's already outside the advertised capabilities of the AF system at 50 (x2=100)mm, but unlike some companies the Pentax AF system is good for more than it says it is and works anyway. F11 is just too much to ask though.

the 205 is the only Pentax one which will work, but there are 3rd party ones which should work. At the end of the day its just a lockable switch with a long cable and a 2.5mm jack.

the 5D is full frame, which pushes the price waaaayyyyyy up

making a silicon chip that big is expensive which accounts for some of it, and Canon know they can charge what they like for full frame and some people will pay it.

another success story

I loaded my *istDL2 with 4 freshly charged 7Dayshop brand 2500MaH AAs before heading to Canada for my holiday.

I'm not exactly sure how many shots the DL2 took in the 2.5 week holiday, but it must have been over 300 plus a fair amount of reviewing on screen and plugged into a TV for others to see. Bearing in mind that a lot of people say NiMH's will self discharge in that time, my DL2 is still reading full charge now.

Microprocessor controlled individual channel chargers rock

Hi Rich, welcome to the world of Pentax photography

IMO its AA batteries are one of the best things about the K100, you can get Alkaline ones more or less anywhere in a pinch. Try buying a new battery for a Canon anywhere but a camera shop!

Easily the best batteries are the Uniross Hybrio NiMH. They are only rated at 2100Mah which doesn't sound like a lot, but they are a new type of battery which has an very low self discharge rate compared to old NiMH's, which are notorious for going flat quickly if left unused.

Any NiMH charger will work with any NiMH battery. As you have surmised, all chargers are not created equal and some have clever reconditioning modes and the like. I'm afraid I have no knowledge of how well these work, since I use a 7dayshop V6000. It's on the inexpensive side but it has individual microprocessor controlled channels for each battery and has served me well.

The problem with R-CRV3s is that they are Li-Ion based. The native voltage of an Li-Ion cell is 3.7V. Putting one of these in instead of 2x 1.5V cells means you are supplying ~20% more voltage than intended, which is a bad idea. Some of the rechargeable CRV-3s are regulated to 3V, and as far as I can see these should be OK, but I don't know which ones they are. In any case the benefit from running R-CRV3 over a good set of NiMH is unlikely to be that much, and they are quite expensive.

The SMC-A 50 1.7 is a very good choice, you wont be disappointed! I have it and it is one of the best lenses in my camera bag. Another of the best lenses in my bag is the Pentax SMC-DA 50-200 ED. I have found it to be as sharp as any of the primes I own within its range and it makes a perfect starter kit with the 18-55.

hope this helps

interesting idea Matt, of course I have no more idea than you if its true, but it would seem consistent with the improved shadow detail rendering with the K10D