Thanks for all the tips

That does look interesting, if expensive. As I already have a pretty good little PCM audio recorder, an Olympus LS-5, that has decent built-in mics and mini-jack input and output, I'm going to try that with the camera and see how easy it is to dub the sound. The audio quality the Olympus can capture, eg taking a feed from a sound desk at a conference, is pretty good. (I've also got a 'dead cat' wind shield for it, and for the Rode mic.) The clapping hand trick is something I've heard before, though it may not suit all situations!

Now I need to try this out - oh, and make sure the video quality is good enough too!

I've just bought a Rode Video Mic Pro (from Music Matter - I found they have good prices and range) to use with my K-5 II. It gives good sound quality (mono - I'm intending to use it mainly for interviews, etc). It has a low cut filter that should help cut out traffic rumble.

However, the K-5 II has limited audio recording facilities - there's no way to control the audio level. The Rode mic has the option to boost the level so you can turn down the settings on camera to get better sound from the dedicated mic circuitry rather than the 'lower quality camera pre-amp', but I can't take advantage of that. Nor is is possible to monitor the audio on headphones.

Well, I bought the camera for stills, not mainly for video, but would like to take advantage of my kit to record some videos as the image quality is good. Any tips for getting the best audio?

Bother! I meant 'not want to take risks'!

Thanks! Looks very useful, Purchase (at no cost) worked first time, now on the way to my e-reader!

No sure about this - Komputerbay is an unknown brand (at least to me) and some of the reviewers aren't happy. The Integral one I mentioned is only a bit more at £22.99. With a card this big I'd not one to take risks.

Unless you need the microSDXC size, you might be better with this Integral 64GB UltimaPro SDXC Card 45MB/s - Class 10 from MyMemory. I've been using one for a while now in my K5-II with no problems and it's quick. No postage charge from MyMemory, either!

Hi caj26: all may not be lost. What sometimes happens is that a glitch damages the index on the memory card, so that your computer/camera can't find the images themselves. With a bit of luck the JPEG or RAW files will still be there, but without the index your computer can't find where they are. That's what I found when I used the Photorec recovery program I mentioned above - it looks at everything on the SD card, not just the index file, and then helps you rescue 'lost' items.

As suggested above, write protect the card and don't use it again till you've tried some rescue software. I've had another look at the Photorec page - and realised I was wrong to imply it was only for Linux - works on Windows and MacOS too. Give it try - it's free.

Hope it works!

Thanks for the link to the videos - they look very helpful. I wish I'd had these when I started working on RAW images!

Well, I've been using DigiKam and Darktable for some time and have had no problems in either program with PEF files from my K-x and now K-5IIs. DigiKam will edit them, though I prefer Darktable. (Using Ubuntu 12.04.)

Footnote: Darktable is pretty powerful, but I've found it a steep learning curve, I've recently downloaded the Darktable 1.4 user manual - it makes things clearer.

I've recently posted here, in the Leads to Deals forum about an Integral 64GB UltimaPro SDXC Card. This works fine in my K-5 IIs - I didn't need to format it.

As indicated in some comments here, these cards use the exFAT system (an extension to the FAT file system which allows the use of cards over 32GB). Your computer also needs to be able to read this file system - as indicated in my original post, I needed to update my computer for this. I'd advise against formatting the card in a computer unless you are really sure you're formatting with the right file system - follow the recommendation to format in the camera. However, unless you really want to wipe the card, you shouldn't need to. Of course, the card may be faulty!