Having owned the K20D for a while I've never considered the need to calibrate individual lenses but see an increasing number of threads mentioning the need to do this on the K5.

I guess it's possible my lenses may benefit from some calibration on the K20D but having not noticed any particualr issues in my photos I've never taken things further.

My question is are these calibration issues been noted due to "pixel peeping" and have little effect in "real world viewing" or does the K5 need a bit more tweaking than previous models to get the best from it?

The reason I ask is that my K20D has always been hassle free, I can just concentrate on taking photos and whilst the K5 is definitely on my buy list I'm not really keen on spending nearly a £1000 for a load of hassle?

Simon

I follow these "K5 issues" with interest as it's going to be my next purchase but I think I'll wait a little while longer to see the consensus on the firmware success. I notice on DPreview that some owners report that it's solved their issue although I'm not sure what testing they carried out?

At least for me, as I mainly shoot landscapes, the low light/tungsten issue shouldn't be significant - it's a strange one though as it doesn't seem to affect all K5s

Simon

you're welcome...don't forgot to post some photos from it!!

Simon

Try here, I'm guessing it comes with warranty too..

http://www.mifsuds.com/acatalog/Used_Pentax_AF_Lenses.html

Just in case anyone is looking for used lenses I see Mifsuds have a few in stock at the moment..

http://www.mifsuds.com/acatalog/Used_Pentax_AF_Lenses.html

Simon

I think there's a little confusion here regarding plain ND filters & Graduated ND Filters - a normal ND filter has the same level of coating across the whole glass so just reduces light for the whol scene. An ND GRAD has a different coating top and bottom so helps to balance land & sky in high contrast scenes

http://www.bryanhansel.com/2006/using-a-nd-graduated-filter/

Simon

Unfortunately using the "class" system doesn't really help - it'a another one of those industry standards that's a bit too vague as it only refers to the minimum speed of the card.

Class 10 = 10mb/s minimum

sandisk extreme sdhc are 30mb/s whereas some cheaper alternative, whilst still class 10, are only 10mb/s - a big difference.

You need to check the exact speed of each card to get a meaningful comparision. Another thing to consider when buying a 32gb card is a lot of photos are going to get lost if it fails so it's well worth making sure you buy a decent quality card - alternatively I prefer to buy several smaller ones

Simon

You've missed the obvious one, the new DA 35mm F2.4 - rumour has it that it is actually based on the FA35mm F2 !!

Simon

For quality & value you can't beat DSCL for prints 18x12inch and below.

Anything larger then I recommend Peak Imaging


To get accurate prints you do need to make sure you have a good workflow (colorspace etc) and that your monitor is calibrated

Simon

It's probably worth mentioning that unfortunately comparison between manufacturers using the "class" system doesn't seem to be too useful - some class 10 cards are reported as been slower than other class 6 cards. Personally I stick with the Sandisk Extreme cards so I know what I'm getting