Once again the Panasonic micro 4/3 is ahead of the pack with three colour options incuding black,...ok, they are'nt exactly attractive colours but at least Panny is thinking about it.

Anvh....the grips were good but very expensive for what are in effect just plastic boxes. If the sensor was square there would be no need to flip the camera over for vertical format.

I does seem ludicrous to me that with all of this technolgy one still has to physically turn these cameras despite all the claims for ergonomic design. We have not needed to do that with medium format for 80 years. Surely it's time to move DSLR's on from 35mm, or more accurately, the Canon T90 of nearly 40 years ago.

Mongoose,....the new 'hybrid' four thirds cameras without mirror are quite a bit smaller than the APS/FF DSLR's, and set to get smaller yet. Although the sensor is a little smaller than APS they are currently at 12 mil pixels in a £460 camera and the image quality is the same as for k20,..ie, better than most.

The real value of this 'micro four thirds' is that it will hopefully cause the others including pentax to start thinking outside the box and away from the black plastic blob which started with the Canon T90 in 1974(?)

There is already evidence that the others are lifting their heads,..Samsung has already announced a 'hybrid' system using APS sensor.

This is where a proven innovator like pentax could really do some business if they only got their pencils out. A pentax hybrid of nifty design with an intelligent adaptor giving full 'K' mount handshake could really bring things away from the T90 and into the new millenium,...especially with a square sensor.

I had a large Canon FD system with F1 and AE-1 bodies,...I think in fact that the 'chrome' top of AE-1 programme was actually a silver plastic of very high quality,..ie, not plated but the same stuff right thru. I always thought that it was aluminium alloy but the repairer once told me it was actually a plastic.

....But of course they were MUCH nicer cameras to use than the black plastic blob which came later after Luigi Colani showed Canon how cheaply plastic SLR's can be churned out.

John, yes, I agree,...people of older vintage can remember 'real' cameras and the plastic is a very poor substitute material.

.....Quite apart from the nightmare of handling polycarbonate,...which is a timebomb ticking away at the moment.

You are correct that it's NOT strictly the same process as anodising.

However, it is a very similar process wherein the 'silver' is deposited by static electricity onto the plastic. Like anodising the plating 'metal' is only microns thick. Some car parts are made like this. Well done it makes for a very nice looking product but the 'metal' apearance is only cosmetic.

Gwyn,..yes you're right but, unfortunately, it's just the old black blob underneath....

.......some of us are hoping for less blob altogether....

yes, you can anodise black plastic. Personally I don't need a camera that i'm afraid of the paint wearing off every time I hold it up.....

Forgot to add other really hot news,....theres a very fetching KM in army field green,....OOH lovely!!.....just right for playing soldiers in the woods with my friends! Much better than their plastic machine guns!! Don't know if theres any paintball proof lenses with it.

Oh, and the 645 digital is announced,...well, again.....

http://www.pentax.jp/japan/news/2009/200908.html

Pentax thinks the k20 should go silver,..well, titanium actually along with everything else since 'titanium' became the new 'turbo'......

Personally, I hope theres more than this to appear soon....

This is turning into a trip down memory lane.....

....I remember the SEI spot photometer VERY well and although I currently have no use for one I would very much like to own one. As far as I know it was never actually originally intended for photographic use but for lighting engineers and theatre lighting techies etc. As an instrument it is excellently designed having both simplicity and great efficiency. Over the years, I have had a look and play with some more modern spot meters but they did not compare favourably with the SEI instrument except for being a lot smaller.

It's only in recent years with access to the internet that I discovered Ansel Adams's use of the SEI photometer along with his UK made Cooke lenses.

Part of my training was to accurately judge distances and set them on the camera without removing eyes from the subject....our instructor actually requiered us to focus the camera with it behind our backs...it was repeated constantly thousands of times until we were perfect at it.

These days all of my cameras are set to hyperfocal distance as a constant default setting for instant action as soon as they are needed.