you cannot create detail which isn't there to begin with.

Geniune Fractals is supposed to be very good at upsizing images and it might help you to print bigger without pixelisation, but it's never going to turn a *istD into a K10D or a K10D into a 645D

except for the MCSE part, me too.

The rate at which distros like Ubuntu have been improving, Linux will be a fully viable Windows alternative by the time XP becomes unusably out of date.

just be careful not to show up her Canon too much when you get your new K10D, it might cause other problems

I'd snap up a Super Tak if it wasn't for the difficulties the K10D metering system has with old lenses. I'm using a Zeiss Flektogon F2.4 at the moment (again with metering issues). Optically it's great but it lacks that little bit more speed which stands the 50mm apart from the crowd.

I recognise that a 35mm is harder to make than a 50mm because of the size of the mirror box getting in the way. Still I don't think it's unreasonable to ask for a 35 F2 at a similar price to the FA 50 F1.4. Afterall Sigma are managing to produce their 30 F1.4 at a pretty reasonable price. I'm tempted by that one it has to be said.

what I'm still waiting for is a DA standard prime which doesn't cost the earth. Something about 30-35mm, F2 or faster and less than £200

I think it would take a lot for a company the size of Canon to be in anything which could be called Trouble, but I don't think their position is as dominant as it was.

The EOS system had a huge head start in DSLRs such that even Nikon was playing catch up, but I think that advantage has recently dwindled. I also think they are suffering from a lack of a true entry level product. The 400D competes on the level of the Nikon D80 and K10D (in terms of price at least, for now I shall leave aside the true glory of the K10D features wise)

The big C has no current model to challenge the Nikon D40, Pentax K100D and whatever the Olympus entry level model is which always seems to come with such good twin lens kit prices.

True with the cutthroat nature of the low end Pentax, Nikon and Oly probably don't make that much money directly from these cameras, but system switching is not common. Once a person has bought a K100D and a couple of lenses, he or she is much more likely to upgrade to a K10D than to say a Canon 20D.

It is for this reason that I think the Samsung partnership will do Pentax good. The more people out there with K mount lens collections, the more will be likely to follow the Pentax upgrade path when the time comes.

I tried Bibble and find I get better results with UFRAW, although that is probably partly down to my generally slightly odd opinions of GUIs (I seem to be the only person in the world who thinks GIMP is easy and Photoshop has a finiky UI)

small caveat, I can't get Lightzone to work, it just refuses to run

UFRAW is great though.

good to hear, I like UFRAW a lot

wow that sounds really nifty, thanks John! I'll take a look