Here it is folks, my opinion of the K10D
Finally had some reasonably good weather for taking the K10D out and about, attached to my Sigma 50-500 and supported on a monopod I visited a local bird garden, so I guess my first praise must go to the shake reduction system, one particular shot was 1/180th sec at 420mm OK so I had it on a monopod, but when you consider the correct shutter speed to avoid shake would normally have been 1/600th sec allowing for the increase in focal length for the digital sensor, thats sure proof of the SR capabilities.
The ability to set custom functions for the edials is excelent, for example, in Av mode the front dial is redundant, custom functions have allowed me to set this dial to control exposure compensation (I can also set it to adjust ISO or white balance) the "redundant" dials can also be programed in other modes.
The K10D handles well, the only gripe is the autofocus can hunt a little in low light (nothing new to Pentax) so I am looking forward to the release of HSM lenses over the next few months. at present I have only tried the camera with jpegs but these are tremendous quality, A recent review claimed the K10Ds images were a little "murky" but I can only assume thats because they tested it in dull overcast weather, the ones I have had so far have been well balanced and the colours have been spot on, and I dont mean bright, punchy and over saturated, I mean SPOT ON as in true to life, the images are a little soft but this is a deliberate on Pentax DSLRs, Pentax leave the photographer to decide on the required amount of sharpness, though a certain level of sharpness can be applied if required via the cameras basic settings.
The camera is dead easy to use, the controls are well laid out and all the main functions are easy to access. the LCD screen is enormous compared to my istD and has a nice little touch of displaying the cameras settings briefly when its first turned on or the mode is changed, custom functions also allow the display of the histogram and/or highlight and dark areas on the image if required.
I could go on forever, but I think I've said enough, I am 100% happy I bought the camera, previously I would not have tried to persuade anyone to buy a specific brand of camera, telling them to review them all and make their own minds up, but I am definately going to plug the K10D, if the new HSM lenses put the Pentax AF system on a par with Canon then Pentax are definately going to be a HUGE contender in the DSLR market, especially with the sheer number of innovations and features on the K10D