I'd be interested, I'm in Cambridge

IF stands for internal focusing, in practical terms it means the lens stays the same length when focusing and the front element does not rotate

I tried that last week with the 18-55 (no power zoom). It works pretty well, the SR still seems to have some effect though it does seem to get a bit confused when the focal length changes drastically during the exposure.

sorry to have to correct you Matt, but A series lenses don't require stop down metering, only M series and earlier. Stick an A series lens in the A position and its only limitations are no autofocus and you have to set the focal length manually on the K10D and K100D

otherwise bang on the money as always.

My Dad uses an old Optio 43WR (the square 4MP one) to take shots which he then uses rectification software on for drawing detailed building elevations.

His company now uses Pentax Optio W series cameras exclusively because they need to be sure of high quality shots in all weathers and because the cameras are virtually indestructible. Land surveyors tend to be hard on equipment, yet they haven't had a single one fail on them to my knowledge.

I have a number of non F series lenses which don't report their focal lengths. If you turn the camera on with one of these mounted and SR engaged you get the menu asking what focal length the lens is, but as far as I can tell theres no setting for a level of shake reduction.

make sure you get a decent reader, I originally bought a reader because my first digicam was painfully slow but the K10D is actually quicker than most USB2 readers. It's certainly a lot faster than my cheapo 7dayshop one anyway.

my first charge hit 484 shots before dropping to "half" on the display, at which point I topped it up because I wanted be sure of using the camera next day.

If you look at the specs on the K100D, you will note that its rated battery life on AAs is a fairly pathetic 300 shots compared to the DL2 at 600. The 10D has even more beefy features to drain the battery, I doubt AAs would cut the mustard.

the controler I'm using is a Philips Universal SBC RU 151

Its a couple of years old now so the exact model may no longer be available, but in theory any universal remote should do the trick provided its got a self configure mode.

its one of the ones with an auto scan function, I'll dig it out later and post the exact model but its basically the cheapest, smallest one I could find.

You put it in setup mode and point it at the camera (obviously camera must be in wireless release mode). The remote just keeps fireing off codes at a rate of about 1 every couple of seconds and you watch until the camera shutter fires. You press a button to set the code et voila, the power button on the remote now = shutter on the camera.