You said it was cropped - personally I would have avoided his face in the centre and gone with the rule of thirds. The DOF is good with nice bokeh. I don't know what focal length this was, but it could have done with a little fill-in flash to lift the shadows on the face (although you may be able to get away with a bit of dodging - I know fill-in isn't to everyone's taste). Otherwise, nicely executed!

Same here - although I emailed first. She did explain the box was a bit tatty, but not torn or anything, just rough around the edges. I took that to mean that it has been sat around looking forlorn for too long As I said earlier - me one big happy bunny! (BTW - I'll put another post up shortly, but the bundled RAW conversion software looks to be a whole new ball-game compared to the unusable mess that came with the K10D. It seems to give better colour/sharpness than ACR...)

My experience with them was very good. A named person responded to my email with a number to call; she took the order and told me the box wasn't in mint condition, but the camera was new and fine; camera turned up as promised. She was right about the box - looks like it has been sat on a shelf and possibly opened a few times. But the camera and rest of the stuff was fine. 300 actuations, which seems to be about right and I assume covers factory tests. So in all I'm a happy bunny

Simon

I currently have a K10D and a GX20 and IMHO Samsung have the edge on usability/interface. Although the differences are largely subtle, the GX20 is more in line with other technology devices I've used. In an (admittedly not double-blind) test with my 5 and 7 year olds, the Samsung won easily. (They give my wife advice on using the computer, BTW!)

Greynolds - I also started off with a bridge (Fuji 9600). This is a good camera, but at the end of the day it's a glorified compact because you can't get around the sensor side. So all the stuff we like doing with dof etc. just doesn't happen. And noise! And evf...etc....etc...

Thanks Steve. I think I will follow the general advice and stick to primes for older lenses! (Now let's take a look at ebay....)

Thanks Steve/John. Advice appreciated.

Pete - does the compromise really work? Given that we are told to turn SR off when using tripods, that tends to imply "wrong" SR can be as bad as no SR? I've been put off buying manual zooms because of this.

GX20 arrived today. Loaded the latest firmware and wizzed through changing all settings to my way of thinking, then introduced it to the Pentax grip. Ummmmmmm. Miss Marple, I know where you're coming from and your DIY job will certainly make it useable. BUT - things will still stick out where they shouldn't and the "soft" finish is slightly different between each item.

So I'm going to try it sans grip over the weekend (National Trust/safari park visits so lots to shoot) and see how I get on. Right now I'm inclined to sell the grip (SRS purchase, by the way, not one of the Jessops bunch) and wait (probably in vain) for a Samsung model to turn up.

First impressions are very favourable, btw!

Shim - "more detail on the JPG than can be got out of the DNG". I'm confused!! I thought RAW is the whole, unadulterated truth, in which case how can the camera do more than ACR et al?