I like the colour version also & like the perspective distortion from the wide angle. Can you not remove the vignette in Post processing or during raw conversion Mark ?

The first shots's shadows under the roof are a little too deep for me & a little distracting. It may be from your mono conversion as I notice there is some detail in the shadows of the colour shot that is gone in the mono equivalent.

First one is needlessly suffering noise from using iso6400 when you had plenty of scope to use a different shutter speed or aperture, the second is a little soft from using a shutter speed of 1/80th when using a 105mm lens.
Both of these shots could have been so much better if taken at different settings.

Please don't think I'm trying to be clever or rude, I'd just like to give some honest & sound advice.
I think you could have saved yourself a large chunk of money by buying a good photography guide or taking a short course. The K20d is capable of so much more than you will get from the K-7 unless you learn how to use it properly.
I'd suggest reading up on the basics of aperture, shutter speed, iso & how they all relate to each other. I'm sure then, that as you appreciate the ergonomics of the k-7 you'll be motivated & comfortable to get out & practice to put your new-found knowledge to good use.

Oh & remember to share the results

Cracking blues on this series. The polariser doing it's job well. I wish it was bright enough here for a polariser !

Another jobsworth.

I would have thought they would zero the clock after testing.

A couple of hundred shots isn't going to hurt really, they may be from "test shots" at the dealer. I know when I've tried bodies at dealers I have always (after asking) released the shutter a few times. These bodies would be sold "as new" I'm sure so that may explain it.

Another useful one is actually a plugin for firefox called "greasemonkey" whch has thousands of add on scripts. I use "Flickr in mostly black" which changes the flickr background to black (duh!) and "flickr exif decerator" which shows the photo exif (if available) when you hover on a photo in flickr.

Thanks for the contact add... any more flickr-ites out there ?

You can download the PEF codec for windows vista from Pentax HERE which will allow you to preview PEF files in windows explorer, very handy especially if you view extra large thumbnails.
But I'm not sure if is used by any raw converter you may have & these may need to be updated seperately as you have already done.

I seem to be using my camera handheld more often now, but I think this is more down to confidence than anything. If I think a tripod will be required then I carry one with me & will use it if I think a photo has real potential & I want it to be critically sharp.

I noticed a comment on one of my photos made it onto the flickr explore page, which means very little really apart from a little kudos, but it does bring people to look at your portfolio who otherwise wouldn't have noticed. Thanks to Mikew for that one, as it was really a test image after a lens purchase but Mike told me I should share it, so I did & it's now one of my most viewed images.

It's odd that you're not notified of this by flickr themselves but I have found a tool that will allow you to be notified by way of an automatic comment on any explored photos of yours.

It's HERE for anyone that is interested. You don't have to sign up for alerts either, you can just search on the web page for flickr screen names to find any of their explored photos.

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation or connection with this prog. just merely a suggestion for those that are interested.

If anyone else has any flickr tools suggestions then why not add them to this thread?

I'm sure this has been posted here somewhere already & that Tamron would be their "preferred" supplier

Makes sense as they sold off alot of Sigma stuff at 1/2 price. Pity I was skint at the time !