George, you keep stating that margin is only correctly defined as being unit price less unit cost. If you talk to a cost accountant or similar then that is probably true.

In my experience of advising businesses and working in financial reporting people would often assume you mean total turnover less cost of sales.

In either case, in my experience it is not unusual for someone to ask you to clarify whether you meant unit margin or gross margin.

It was obvious what Dr Mhuni was saying so there was no need to play the pedant and try and pick fault.

Strangely enough I was doing a quick comparison today of selling my old kit and buying the closest equivalents secondhand for one of the other brands (just out of curiosity). The availability of secondhand lenses for Pentax's competitors seems to keep prices down. Exact equivalents aren't available and stabilisation would be lost on most lenses, but even at current secondhand prices it looks like I could raise cash doing this. If secondhand Pentax prices rise due to these latest increases then that gap would widen

Not that I'm looking to move - I'm quite happy with my lens collection. My days of buying new Pentax lenses are most likely over though.

It does look very much like a Vine Weevil, in which case "lovely little critter" doesn't apply, believe me. "Horrible little pest which will destroy all your pot-plants" is more like it

The adult beetles don't do much harm - just munch on the leaves. The problem is the grubs which, as John points out, eat the roots and kill plants. Half of my pot plants died mysteriously last year and these were the problem.

Back onto the flash question though:
I built a DIY diffuser for my flashgun. It's essentially a four-sided pyramid with a tissue paper bottom (about 2/3 the size of an A4 sheet). The inside is coated with tin foil to bounce the light to the front. It works well for difussing the light and avoiding the worst of the shine on insects. My wife laughs at me when I put it on the flash but it does help...

You could try and build a similar one for a built in flash if you're feeling creative.

The latter - it gives you 196-560mm.

Edit:
Charlotte got there first

No-one's being all that doom-and-gloomy, are they? The price increases are a fact in the US and are of some interest to us as well. I don't think anyone has mentioned "the death of Pentax!" or similar (unless you count this post :lol

You should pop over to DPReview if you want to get indignant about people prophesising doom and gloom

I hope not

After the last price jump, the only Pentax lens I have bought new has been the 100mm WR when it was on offer at Jessops. If the prices rise I don't think I will be buying again

The prices are closer to the UK and European prices now. Apparently it is due to Pentax restricting the discounts that can be offered on lenses.

There seems to be a lot of fallout from this on the US-centric sites (i.e. the one you linked to above and DPReview). Lots of people indignant about the increases and threatening to leave Pentax. Similar to the talk in the UK when the prices rose.

I would imagine this will eliminate some of the grey import market and make it less tempting to buy any expensive gear while you are holidaying in the US.

Could ultimately be damaging to Pentax if people make good their threats and stop buying Pentax. Could be good for us though if it increases Pentax's profits without increasing our prices

EDIT:
Lots of speculation too that Pentax were locking people in with rebates on K5s just prior to the increase, and/or that Pentax are about to release a super camera which will justify the prices...

If I'm walking around a city for a weekend then I don't want to carry around half a ton of equipment in an enormous backpack. I'm not going to use every lens so streamlining makes sense. It also means I would spend less time switching lenses, digging through a backpack etc.

If I was on a specific photography excursion then I would take more, but not if it is a general holiday. I have been away and come back from holidays having carried a lens around with me that I didn't use.

Depends what you have really...

I went to Rome recently and was happy with the 12-24, 43 and 77. The 12-24 stayed on most of the time for buildings, streets, monuments, museums etc. The 43 and 77 were on for statues and "portraits" from statues.

Keeping camera equipment down was good for being out all day, and for the museums which didn't allow a bag. I tended to keep the 12-24 on the camera and carry the 2 primes in my pockets. I had a soft cloth goggles case to put the 12-24 in when I wasn't using it.

I believe (having read a photography magazine infomercial on the Nikon 1 at the weekend) that it pre-buffers the shot and then continues taking pictures for a couple of seconds after you have pressed the shutter. It then "chooses the 5 best images" and writes them to the card

This seems a bad idea on 2 levels to me:

1) I'm already guilty of taking too many shots and needing to wade through them. If you need to wade through 5 for every time you press the shutter...

2) Call me old fashioned but I would like to choose the shot I keep. From how this is described it would seem the camera could deem the shot you intended to not be the best and would discard it

Every so often this might help you capture a picture you would have missed. The downsides seem to outweigh that benefit to me though.