If you replaced the optical viewfinder with an electric viewfinder that would remove the need for the mirror and you would end up with mirrorless camera instead of a DSLR!

There are some significant diffences between the K70 and the KP

27 Point AF in KP Vs 11 in K70
5 Axis shake reduction ( 5 stops) Vs 4 axis (4.5 Stops) on K70
86K pixel RGB sensor Metering Vs 77-segment metering
New Sensor
Metal to Plastic body

I have had a similar problem on my phone (android) , again always with this site

I disconnet from internet and delete history

The website says that the direct print on brushed aluminium is suitable for bathrooms.

also says this 'the whites and very bright parts of your photos are not actually printed; instead, these areas retain the horizontally brushed appearance of the aluminium surface.' So might not be what you are looking, must depend on photo.

https://uk.whitewall.com/photo-lab/alu-dibond

Ameteur photographer devoted a good part of the magazine to the CSC V DSLR debate a few weeks ago. There did not appear to be any clear winner. Some points they made where

- AF Whilst the better peforming dslrs may do better CSC are not far behind and clossing the gap.
-Battery power, as mentioned above CSC's use battery more
- Lenses CSC's don't have the extensive range of of lenses that some DSLRS have.

It seems that it often thought that DSLRS will die off and CSC's take over but DSLRS seem to be hanging around and outselling CSC's. I have often thought about CSC and had a Micor four thirds camera for a while. It was enyable to use and the image quality was close to ASPC but did not get much use as i didnt have so many lenses as the DSLR. There is a good second hand market for DSLR lenses at the moment, CSC leneses are new and bargins harder to find, some systems like fuji have some nice lenses but they are pricey.

I understand your frustration, i used to own the Pansonic FZ38 before purchasing a DSLR , when i started using the DSLR I was not imediatley impressed. I took some practice and getting familar with the new camera before I started getting better images. This is far from the first post i have seen from somebody moving from an compact or bridge camera to a DSLR and being disaponted.

If you finding the exposures typically to dark you adjust pressing the +/- button on the top and using the back dial to increase or decrease the exposure. I do find the pentax camera tends to produce darker photos by default in comparison to panasonic.

The zoom of the panasonic model is its strongets point, the only way to get similar with a dslr is with an additional lens, the 55-300 would get you close.

Reading camera manuals can be a bit of an overload of information, much of which you wont use at first, but i dont think you will truly see the advantages of the camera unless you learn how it works.

It may be worth posting here to see if anyone on here can see a colour cast before adjusting monitor. As you say it seemed ok on the printers monitor its and yours, seems unlikley they arte both out by the same.

it does not matter if its raining or not you can still get arrested for that sort of thing!

The symptons described sound like the apperture motor has died, i have read a few instances on various forums of this happening with the K30.

That sounds like good service, i will try getting ICC for some of the paper types i like most. I have done a bit more reading on it so have an idea on what to do in elements.

Finally got printer up and running today, am very pleased with the quality of the prints. They are better than then the prints i have done a boots. I did have a few disasters to though.

Printed a few 4x6 Photos (Mainly pet shots etc ) on kodak Premium gloss paper, these all cam out very well.

Printed A4 landscape on Permajet Smooth pearl this also came out very well.

I printed a black and white portrait on Permajet Ultra pearl - it think i made big mistake with print settings as the in did not fry properly and bled badly. The same photo was also printed on PermaJett Matt Plus (This was more like a thick sheet of typical paper/card) - I was pleased with the results = the contrast was a lot and the detail less pronounced than the less than on the more glossy papers.

Looking forward to trying some of the other papers out.