Dear George,

Thank you for refreshing my memory.........and for you helpful, friendly, polite and informative attitude.

So sorry to trouble you with my inept and stupid question.

Is it correct that K100 will only capture using the Pentax version of RAW, ie so called 'PEF', and DNG is NOT available with this camera?

I have searched 'Self Help For Insomniacs',..aka the 'Operating manual' but to no obvious avail.

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Hi George,...thank you for your friendly message in the 'play' comp thread,..hope you are well.

I'm currently only using a 28mm and a 50 /1.7,...not unpacked the kit zoom yet. Both lenses are 'A' types used on 'A' but only at f8 and f5.6, giving good results, and both are in very good general condition. I notice that although the iris of the 28mm appears nicely slick and neat, that of the 50 gives uncertain aperture shape when the lever is moved by finger,...now a perfect hexagon,...now a slightly distorted one, indicating play in the iris mechanism. obviously this has no effect on exposure since the actual area stays constant enough, however in view of your points about the f1.7 do you think this is ok?....not sign of something about to give up? Do i need to get invasive about this or ignore?

Both lenses were from ebay at £36 and £40 so, no real harm done yet!

Thanks for your help, Bob

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Edit; Ive just noticed that last weeks comp had a midnight deadline,...I had no intention to try to push the 'rules' so please disregard my pic if yo consider it too late.

I'ts been a bit of a steep learning curve as the camera only arrived on Wednesday and I have been trying since to get an idea of how the supplied software works as I have not managed to get any camera files into it ....this pic was very rapidly passed thru Picassa and into a new photobucket account this morning!

I did'nt mean to upset what is, essentially a bunch of very decent people,.....nobody on this forum has been at all unpleasant, apart from poor George and I suspect that he has his trials and tribulations just like me.

I have just let various matters get on top of me this week and it has built up..........I have been ready to buy the K10 tommorow (Saturday) with 16-45 f4,..but,....it's too short on the narrow end and too wide at the other, so not really ideal for me,....attempts to source some old primes while I await better choices have failed today.

I had already planned a new project to start as soon as the battery was charged.....

So, as depression looks like it is going to win this time, I'm going to give it all a miss,...the K10 looks as good a camera as there is in it's class but probqbly not for me.....

No, I don't think so,..apart from the 50 f1.4 most of those lenses are EXTREMLY hard to find.

I spent a large period of this week just trying to find some,...but then I have only been looking in Europe.....

I did ask "where' rather than 'what'.

Where exactly ARE these primes?....or, perhaps you mean all the old ones which are'nt on ebay?

The K10D is now widely available in most countries but unless you are happy with 2 zooms and the kit zoom, you can forget the idea of getting any other lenses because they are not only extremely rare but, if you are lucky enough to find a 'dealer' with one in stock he starts sucking air thru his teeth when you ask about price....

The k10 is obviously not intended as a serious system base, so is it simply a loss leader competitvely 'cheap' to get people struggling to find and buy very non cheap lenses?

You used to be able to buy a 50mm 'standard' lens for any 35mm system for about £200 to £300 and every dealer had them. The 31mm f1.8 is not only rare it's a staggering £750 discount price,....I have no idea what the RRP would run to!! SRS has been trying to sell their only example on ebay but strangely there have been no takers....

About fifty quid extra just for a black one...!!?!

If Canon bring out a medium priced body with built in anti-shake then it's 'game over' for pentax.

Have you all looked at the Canon lens line-up?

The sales pitch says that anti-shake in the body means much cheaper lenses.....well, pentax need to look at some of the discount prices on Canon and Nikon,...and, remember all that stuff is actually obtainable with at least a short order time. You don't have to email 'dealers' in Albania to try and find basic lenses.....

Even Sony has a better range of lenses and they actually exist!

I expect 'George the goader' has an explanation wrapped up in an acidic lecture and dressed with a sprinkling of superiority....

".......Do you enjoy winding people up?...."

No, but I could quite enjoy getting a new camera if it did'nt mean using 'dealers' in Croatia to source a few lenses...