If on your bike, use a camera clamp on the end of the handlebars with bike layed on the ground.....

If on your skis, use your ski sticks held crossed with camera resting on top.......

Yet again we have a pentax product (if it is indeed actually made by 'pentax') that is two years behind the others of it's type, is almost a facsimile of them and is at least twice as expensive.......

So Dan, just to be sure what you are saying.....

.....Are you trying to get us to believe that because independant dealers are on very tight margins that it's ok for us to be constantly ripped off??

It may well be true that dealers have a tough time but that is no excuse for £700 cameras only costing £500 in the USA......and somethings are HALF the UK prices....??!!?

.........On a separate issue;

Am I the only person to think that X70 has an extaordinary high price,...an astonishing £369!!!!!?? especially considering that 'the others' made these cameras two years back and in some cases rather better, and that this is after all, just a 'digicam' with minute sensor,.....we are being asked to pay as much as a k200...???????

Either the k200/k20/km are very cheap or x70 is VERY expensive.....as usual with pentax now, something is very wrong........

Yawn,.................sigh,..........

I have asked this bfore I know, and so appologise for asking again......;

1)What is the permitted voltage for the pentax DSLR's?

2)What is a suitable adaptor (make/supplier) for connecting older guns with larger triping voltages.

3)on my old computer I had a bookmarked site that gave all the voltages for most of the old guns and hav stupidly lost this info with the new machines......searching has not provved fruitful so does anyone know the site please?

Any help would be very much appreciated, thank you.

This camera (and unlike the others it's ONLY a camera not a system) is entering a very serious market so it's going to have to offer something different to even be considered. Since it's of very conservative design, the only apparent way to be competitve is for th eprice to drrop considerably against the opposition.

I notice that at the PIE they were saying that they have not decided on either a sensor or even a maker for it!?!! They are also dithering about whether they will let th euser choose an anti-aliasing filter, or not.

See Mike Johnstons humerous comment on his column today;

http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/blog_index.html

Also, see here (scroll down a bit ) to see the PIE pentax stand with prints and the various pentax models etc

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/pie09.shtml

Scroll down even further to see the much more serious mamiya system.....

According to the Tokyo show details (PIE) the launch price is expected to be one million yen/10,000 USD.......

.........at the PIE they had 2mtr x 3 mtr prints on show, made from the prototype models.

When I had a good look at the KM at my local so called 'pro dealer' (although they gave me wrong info on two pentax models,..but that's another story) I was surprised to see that it was the same price as the k200 sat next to it. I noted that both cameras were virtually the same size,..the KM is VERY SLIGHTLY smaller, just fractions of an inch different.

The 'sales staff' in the pro dealer told me that they had not sold any KM's over the Christmas period and I was not surprised.

Hardgravity is right; pentax MUST innovate if it's to survive.

I can't see how the KM,..even in 'paintball' version is anything other than the wrong camera at th ewrong time for too high a price....

It's not even a very good camera,..well below par for pentax, It's got horrible ergonomics,..or rather it soes'nt have any!! It does nothing that any of the other pentax models does not,..indeed it does less and offers less!!

And, the final nail;....it's as expensive as the k200, or very nearly so!

In short, it has nothing going for it and merely apes what the others were doing two years ago....

The mirror would not have to be excessively large for a square sensor....

Assuming a 23mm square sensor the mirror would need to be the same depth as that in one of the dinky pentax film bodies such as the ME or MX. The whole proportion of the camea would of course change, and for the better!!