Marketing is there to bring the product to the attention of a larger group of potential buyers. This is about selling DSLR's to non photographers, who will most likely never print anything larger than a 6 by 4. The differentiator to this class of buyer is the number of pixels.
If the Canikons have 12, 14 ,16 MPs, or whatever, then Pentax need to have at least as many to attract these buyers. The things that really matter to a photographer are secondary.
The part that some find it hard to accept is that for Pentax to survive it needs to capture a share of this market. These buyers fund the R&D that leads to cameras with features that real photographers want.
If Pentax have got their heads screwed on I would expect at least 3 possibly 4 DSLRs to appeal to; the beginner, advanced enthusiast,semi pro, pro market segments. Furthermore they should seriously think about bundling other products that allow easy manipulation and printing of the images that their cameras capture. Including a full Silkypix license would be a start. The benefits of this being two fold, 1. A clear differntentiator to attract beginners. 2. A pleasant initiation for beginners that leads to future sales of more advanced models.

Depends whether Pentax want to be a follower or a leader. They raised the bar with the K10D and others have responded, are Pentax up to the challenge, I personally hope so.

Scanned from film prints, taken this time last year.



10 minutes later

It very much depends on the MF camera. ME Supers still attract a reasonable price as do Super A's and MX's.
I sold a 50mm A F2 with fungus for 14.99 at the same time as I sold the Program A, crazy prices for manual primes in good condition at the moment.

AF cameras appear to be snapped up for their bundled lenses. Lots SFX and MZ series on offer. I tried to sell an MZ7 body but had no takers at £20, so it is back on the shelf keeping company with my MES, Super A and MZ6

I sold a Program A recently for the princely sum of £14.99. Typically kits zooms such as the one you describe have been going for £10-15.
You might get a little more selling the items separately, but the EBay fees will be obviously be higher.

Thanks for the reply John, I thought as much.

Can anyone tell me if lens hoods from different manufacturers have a standard bayonet fitting? I am trying to find a hood for my 28 -105 (62mm filter thread) at a reasonable price and would prefer a bayonet to thread fit.

There is a Nikon hood http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=260144331970&a... which looks like it might do the job.

I believe that older generation lenses are more susceptible. I have seen several cases on Pentax M and A series lens.
The coatings may have been changed to make them less 'tastey' on later series.

Of all the lens that I have dismantled the M series are probably the easiest, as there are fewer small springs to lose.
Fungus is not that hard to remove, but it is my understanding that it will have most likely 'eaten' away at the coatings.
From the EBay picture it looks like the 1:1.4 to pretty badly affected.

In CS3 Gaussian Blur is found under Fliters, Blur.

CS3 has many features that are worth experimenting with. I would recommend Adobe Photoshop CS3 for Photographers by Martin Evening, which provides excellent explanation of and guidance on CS3 the use on CS3's feature set.