I had the mkII version of this lens which I used with my *istD. It was better than either the Tamron or Sigma 70-300 lenses, but did become fairly soft beyond 300mm.

Beautifully made and very compact, although quite heavy. I sold it after I acquired my first * lens (A*300 f4.0).

Here are some examples I took with the lens - http://www.pbase.com/richardday/tokina_80400

Also many of these - http://www.pbase.com/richardday/yeovilton

Best regards

It's price may well make it interesting to us digi-only guys! About £250.

There are some NEF Raw samples here. http://www.samyang.pl/art,5,download

The sample shots look very good indeed, very reasonable edge to edge sharpness and very low CA with no sign of purple fringing, difficult to judge distortion with the sample shots, but they look okay, nothing to suggest anything extreme.

14mm is almost an ideal ultra wide FOV on APS-C at approx 90 deg, anything much wider begins to produce a rather unnatural perspective stretch. I shall keep an eye open for this lens to appear, at €259 (approx £235), it looks very attractive indeed.

Any colour as long as it's black!

The K-x seems an excellently spec'd mid/entry level camera with (hopefully) excellent high ISO and IQ performance.

The omissions of WS, top LCD and focus point confirmation are obvious limitations of the K-m body on which it is based. I suspect that many users would not even notice the lack of them.

If the sensor provides the expected improved noise performance (at both low and high ISO's), I would seriously consider one for that alone. I was somewhat disappointed that the K7 is no better than the K-20D in that area.

Ideally I would love a K20D body (I do prefer the design and ergonomics) with the new sensor if the noise levels are as I hope, but that is as likely to happen as that hot place freezing over!

Maybe we will see a variant (with no major feature omissions, i.e. still with pentaprism, two wheel hyper program controls, WS etc.,) of the K7 body with the 12MP sensor at a cost between the K-x and K7.

Another vote for IDimager, simply the best DAM program available and I've tried most of them! AFAIK it's the only one that properly implements true versioning, very good review here:
http://www.damroundup.com/2008/05/12/review-idimager-v40/

and a comparison chart:
http://www.impulseadventure.com/photo/flow-catalog-compare.html

As you are a UK user, remember to upgrade via the Silkypix UK website:
http://www.silkypixuk.com/index.php/component/option,com_contact_enhanced/Itemid,91/id,6/view,contact/

The UK version has a much better English user manual, it is not just spell corrected, it's grammar corrected as well. You will also benefit from some future video trainings, camera profiles etc, which will only be available to registered UK users.

News update on the Silkypix UK website,

Discounts are now availabe for 2nd licenses where the customer wishes to use the product on different or multiple platforms e.g. Mac and Win or Win and Win.

£29 for DS Pro and £19 for DS v3

Click here for more details - link

I expect that you are talking about Shortcut, the US distributors? Their support sometime does leave something to be desired IMO.

I know that John Nevill here in the UK is very keen to support Mac users as he is one himself.

The only challenge will be that he cannot supply existing US customers with any upgrade deals (but new licences are a different matter :wink, but I'm sure that whatever John can agree with ISL in Japan, will be reflected universally, so I'm sure that when ISL finalise a Mac version you will be able to enjoy DS Pro running natively on your Mac.

John Nevill's (Silkypix UK) e-mail response to me is below (He is also a Mac user):

No timescale on Mac version, I'm putting pressure on for this and guess Nov/Dec, depending upon ISL sales.

I'm sure that John will post any news on a Mac version on the UK website the minute he has something firm about a date. I also suspect that there would be a 60 day offer on Mac versions as and when it appears.

If you are a PC user (or use the PC version on your Mac) and would like to swap over to a Mac version later, contact Silkypix UK for details of a license swap.

RicTax sounds like rictus, not so good!

I doubt that an alliance would mean any branding changes, it would just be a working technology partnership with each company. I think that's what Suzuki really meant. I think everyone is reading too much into his statement.

Like Pentax, the Ricoh camera division also looses or makes very little money, so a joint development/manufacturing partnership could actually benefit both companies.

I know many people think that the sensor is the crucial component in today's digital cameras, but I disagree to some degree, the difference in modern sensor performance is not that massively different. I think other aspects such as ergonomics, the processor pipeline, lens designs and other features actually matter more. It wouldn't worry me unduly if my K20D has a Sony 12MP CMOS sensor instead of the Samsung unit, but all the other features are much more important to me.

It was the same in the days of film cameras. All could use the same films, but it was the feature set and system that mattered and was the basis of choice.