On my way on holiday we flew over the Ricoh arena with RICOH on the roof clearly visible from hundreds/thousands of feet up. Pleased that Pentax is now owned by a parent company with some real clout and presence

Yes but if you were into strobism, it might rule Pentax out since Nikons offer a faster sync speed and, crucially, allow you to shoot at higher speeds if you really want to, something Pentax has prevented you doing. In software. Cos the black bar thing is something you can work around. As the Nikon shooters prove by shooting up to 1/400 and higher to overpower ambient light. Ok so they get a little bit of a black bar. The option to shoot at higher speeds shouldn't be taken out of our hands.

Tony I hope the softness they are referring to is the 'background blur' and something had just got lost in translation.

Not sure how shutter life is affected by Flash sync ability?

John's explanation is convincing. However it would be nice to be able to get around the Flash sync limitation. Worst that can happen is you get black bars in shot, possibly only slightly.

It's a Nappy camera Smeg. I wonder if Matt has tried the Sappy camera. I find myself hankering for one, for using with a K adapter and Pentax primes of course.

Using focus peaking on my nex is very useful, I hope I don't incur the wrath of smeggy, but sometimes I do want sharp edges, and peaking really helps. Using your eye through an optical viewfinder doesn't offer the same split hair precision. Neither does the rather vague peaking on the k30 although it's okay for some applications.

The zoomed in view is also much clearer on the nex. Not sure why.

Grab a few rolls of Ektar and an MX (or Nikon FE for that matter). The original models, not this pumped-up digital version which looks like a 1970s SLR on steroids; where the dinky little control dials are the real deal, not a chintzy pastiche.

Plus who knows what even 'happier' cameras might come out in the mean time.... possibly with a K-mount.

I hope they make it less chintzy.

I'm not sure why Pentax have decided to limit sync at 1/180 rather than 1/250; either it's something to do with the shutter system or their engineers are just bloody minded/over cautious. Many users choose to over ride the max. syn speed (on other brands, where it appears to be possible) because sometimes a higher sync speed is worth the risk of black bars appearing in the shot.