Thanks that's really helpful, having just bought and learning about an AF360-FGZ II. On a whim I ordered a diffuser from Amazon without reading the reviews which conflicted on the fit; it was way to large and I realized that it is designed for the older model. It is now ok with a lining of velcro tape inside (the furry part) but looks a bit Blue Peter. It would be nice if Pentax sold their own like other brands, or even if it came in the package. As far as I can find there isn't a purpose-made diffuser for the latest Pentax models. I have yet to find out if this affects the off-camera P-TTL function.

Before the K3II was announced I had a such a model in mind as a possible upgrade for some time in the future, but the lack of an inbuilt flash is causing doubts. Having just learned the use of the flash to trigger an off-camera flashgun the same scenario would require a second unit involving more expense and more kit to carry around; also it is handy to have the built-in flash for impromptu opportunities and not being a professional I want one camera that can do everything I need. Given the choice I would have preferred this to the GPS - and what the hell do I need a compass in a camera for? The competition all have inbuilt flash so it will be interesting to see how long this concept lasts. I await with interest the independent reviews as to the effectiveness of the new sensor and as importantly for me how good the autofocus is compared to Canon.

If the camera can be operated by an iphone or ipad (aka flucard) then that would reduce the need for a flipscreen to take macro, for me at any rate.

I have been watching some guy on youtube reviewing Pentax (wears a cap, repeats himself) who cautioned against trading everything in your bag for full frame as he reckons there would be very little if any noticeable improvement over the K3 for general use (comparing it to current Nikon/Canon full frame), and that at a huge increase in cost if you include the FF lenses. I thought that was a good point, as I have no ambitions to be a professional. The K3II at full price will be much more expensive initially than the current model which is heavily discounted so it will be interesting to see what would make an upgrade worthwhile compared to the K3 which will no doubt become even cheaper whilst stocks last.

In order to make a AF360FGZII flash work I needed to upgrade the firmware on a 6 month old K50 so maybe there is something in all the upgrades for that as well.

Conversely, produce an slr and people EXPECT you to produce great photos! My white K50 really impressed the crowd at a party ("like something out of Star Wars!")

Thanks all that throws a lot of light on the issue

Thanks John, my JPEGs are typically 9 to 12.5 megapixels so upload ok, and that's at the 'maximum' setting in Elements. As an experiment I saved my 'cherry blossom' in both JPEG and TIFF and there is no discernible difference on screen even if you zoom right in, but the TIFF file is over 47 megapixels compared to the JPEG at around 10.

What do you recommend for the best file format to save pictures in and publish in the gallery? Having edited a RAW in Elements there are several options including PDF which ends up as a massive file (120MP+); however if I edit with Picasa PDFs are much more sensible in size. I have been using JPEG and whilst the file size is similar to the original these look small on the screen.

It would be interesting to compare this lens with the Sigma 150-500 which is now less than a third of the price.

I hadn't bothered changing the clock in the car all winter so I was looking forward to it being right again for a change - except it went in for a software upgrade (yes, really!) on the Friday when the good souls at BMW reset the clock to winter time. For one day - what were they thinking?