Graham please don't feel that you have to apologise. There are some great people on this site and some are very knowledgeable and kind with what they know too. It's just that, sadly, theres a lot of people who follow pentax like it's a football team and have lost any sense of reality about what are actually just more consumer products of indifferent design for the most part. SOME of the pentax models are a bit better than the norm but that's not saying much.

If anyone can do it then pentax can,...only at the moment they're not!

"....If you knew how to use the web you could find out lots about me, enough to sate your curiosity I am sure..."

Yes, I gathered you were very full of youself from your earlier posts.

Unfortuntately, my "curiosity" such as it is, does not extend to smug self-satisfaction in the internet.

I used Rollieflex cameras for about 35 years and also an MPP 4x5.

The trouble is that I have been taking photos since I was 11 years old so getting close to 50 years now. I thought that the k100 might earn my respect but, in truth, I hate most things about it, only use it when I have to and have never really taken a shot with it that pleases me. even the proportion of the image feels wrong to me. It's not a piece of equipement that i can identify with at all, it's just another item of consumer goods with a 'here today gone tomorrow' feel to it. Each time I use it I come closer to chucking the whole nonsense. maybe after 50 years it's time to find some other passion.

So, what are you then?...a pentax dealer of just a 'fanboy'?

Dan, thank you for your thoughtful message.

My local pentax 'pro' dealers are in Waltham Cross shopping precinct,...I can't remember their name as they turned out to be much more 'am' than 'pro' and I won't be going back.

I was there last weekend and km was sat there beside k200 with exactly the same price tag,...£369 apparently with cash back they are about £10 apart. They confirmed that they have not sold very many km and were unable to explain why the price is the same for both models.

The price quoted to my neighbour for Sony a200 at Jessops is £230 after cashback (with 18-70mm) She eventually bought a Nikon D40x (I assume that's what it is as I am yet to see it and only know that it's a 10 milpix model) for £220 including lens.

The irritating thing about pentax is that they seem to offer promise and have had put their head above the parapet with k10, but their lens choices have been poorly conceived (still no decent moderate wide in f2)and their marketing is flaky. lesser models like the k100/k200 are poorly designed, apparently just out of bloody mindedness or to make one change up to k20.

Added to this the SLR is my most disliked camera. k100 is my first '35mm' SLR since 1983 and I have a love/hate relationship with it! I quite like the digital aspect of it's images but dislike it's poor design, crude conception and poinmtless complexity more than any camera that I have owned before.

OK,...it's was not my intention to "spread false information" and my posts have been largely accurate in spirit.

I was wrong it seems about the anti-shake,..I was repeating what was told to me by my local 'pentax-pro' dealership who made it clear that there was NO anti-shake on this camera.

As regards size and appearance, this is a completely plain vanilla item being the usual black plastic blob. It has absolutely NOTHING to separate it from it's peers other, apparently, than the built in anti-shake for which we are invited to pay aprox 40% extra over nikon and sony. If a length reduction of three eighths of an inch is a lot to you then presumably you have become preoccupied with length in your life......to me it means little,..actually nothing.

The km is a dissapointing 'run of the mill' product at a very bad time for pentax. however, perhaps you can throw some light on what makes this particular black plastic blob so different to you...(??)

The 'KM' is not discernibly smaller than the k200,...it's just an inferior slightly slimmer version without the anti-shake.

If Graham wants a G1 size camera with APS sensor and KA mount it would be quite feasible to design one,..the registration distance would not be insurmountable,..it simply means that there would have to be a removeable adaptor for the KA lenses allowing a different mount on the camera body,..quite a nice idea actually.

If the KM had been availble this Christmas for a more realistic price of just under £200, thus slightly undercutting the competition, it might have brought the pentax brand to a lot of people........There were Nikon and Sony 10mil models at substantially cheaper prices so few people were likely to choose and 'outsider' brand costing more than one third extra.

Graham,...I have to agree with you about the very poor ergonomics of the k100/k200. I found that the camera is actually easier and less tiresome to hold for long periods when a tripod quick-release plate is attached as it give purchase for the lefthand lower fingers to actually hold onto something while leaving thumb and forefinger free for focussing manual lenses. When using auto lenses the left hand is redundant apart from holding and there NOTHING for it to grip!

Unfortunately, all DSLR's suffer the same problem to greater or lesser degree as the overall design of the 'black plastic blob' is poor for ergonomics being over 30 years old. Camera makers are very conservative about any new design thinking although things will hopefully now change with second generation digital systems.

The 'KM' appearsand feels even worse,..a badly designed and conceived item at the wrong time, over priced by about £200 whe compared to the competition. My nearest pentax dealer is curretnly trying to get the SAME over the top price for BOTH km AND k200...!!?! a Staggering £350 when Jessops down the road can offer Sony a200 for effectively £230....and km is suposed to attract beginners to DSLR's...??????

"........ we took both cameras and the difference was noticeable in favour of the K20D,..."

So, what WAS the difference then, and what size prints are you making?

.....Just interested to know.

Jessops don't 'do' Pentax......

...Although they can allegedly "get one if anyone was interested" (Romford branch yesterday)

.....Anyway there are "much better cameras than Pentax at cheaper prices" (Cambridge branch two weeks ago)

......And, "I think we might have one somewhere but not too sure where, normally they are order only" (Chelmsford branch last week)