It's hard to comment without seeing images!

But I think Sprocketdog is probably on to something when he says the first few trips out with the camera can be disappointing until a) you get used to it and b) you get the right lighting conditions and subjects.

I also hit the ground running with the K200D, but I was fortunate in that I bought the camera in early summer, and when I used it for the first time the evening light was gorgeous! I was also living on a barge and there was no shortage of stuff to snap

It sounds like the experience has scarred you for life! But there are quite a few variables other than the camera body that might have accounted for it - e.g. what lenses they were using - the focus throw, whether they were HSM or screw mount, how fast they were.

This guy took out his K5 and Nikon D5000 for an available light shoot out and called it a draw: http://shutterfinger.typepad.com/shutterfinger/2011/04/available-light-shootout-...

He wouldn't have seen the tungsten focus issue because he was shooting at about f4, and this appears to be such a slight issue it tends to affect images shot at very fast apertures such as f1.4. (Correct me if I am wrong). At those sorts of apertures I tend to switch to LV focusing, not because I fear front focusing, but because you need to be so precise about what is being focused on.

OTOH if you are still struggling, it might be worth trying a Canon or Nikon to see if it makes a difference. Let us know what you find, because it's good for us in Pentaxland to hear experiences o using other kit, lest we become complacent about what we are settling for from our Pentax kit.

Yet the blogs flourish. Funny that!

I can't get overly sentimental about the decline of staff photo journalists. Any negative is hugely outweighed by the fantastic user generated content from the scene as it happens, and the growth in blogging. Some of those images are Magnum quality, and as the journalist in that article admits, it doesn't matter if pictures are taken on a DSLR or a phone cam. The story is what matters.

Edit- obviously I'm very sorry if the situation is affecting your work Gary... I'm just talking as a news consumer really.

Gary I'm sorry to hear about your lens, and hope you get it sorted soon. It's useful to know the circumstances of the damage. Sounds like big lenses are best stowed separately - unmounted - to the camera body when packing your kit for travel.

Yeah, similar to that, what can look nice is if you make your duplicate layer very blurred, then reduce the opacity to gradually reveal the sharp original.

I think there'll be a few more crop dslrs yet. FF and mirrorless will probably be introduced alongside them in due course if that's where Pentax decides to go. I think a lot is being read into some very 'high level' ideas coming out of Pentax.

The delay in announcing the kr replacement could be partly due to a natural hiatus as Ricoh seize the reigns, and perhaps because of sensor supply issues.

Nice shots Matt, lots of textural interest there.

I'm afraid round here the adults set a bad example, it's just sheer laziness. The thinking is 'I pay my taxes so I'm entitled to litter, the council will pick it up'. You can hardly blame the kids from following their example.

You certainly know it when you smell it! Unfortunately it doesn't have much of a smell until your hand goes into it or you have trampled it over your carpet and a pleasant hour planting daffodil bulbs becomes a hellish afternoon of scrubbing and disinfecting...

I still love cats, but I do agree they need to be kept indoors really... As for stray cats, I wonder if our grey squirrel vigilantes would keep some ammo spare to help deal with that problem?