[JHW]

According to 'The photographers guide to Capture NX' it says that you can undo all your in camera settings without loss of quality. You can edit your images non destructively. If this is true the JPG file is altered but not when you use raw.
I read an review about Pentax K10d and they said that using this camera with a kit lens is not advisable. You should go for the 16-45 (i think it was) because its a much better lens. Maybe there is some truth to this. Anyway I've tried 12 bit, 14 bit and I stil get the same result. The images are (at ISO 200) to much noisy in the dark areas. I will test D300 with a 18-50/2.8 which I by the way use with my D60. The D60, using the same settings, does not show the noise in the darker areas...I know it's strange but strange things have happend before. Remember the Canon EF 70-300 IS. When shooting portrait the images got blurry - after a while (some months) Canon agreed that the lens was built wrong. So, who knows. One thing for sure: Today it's much easier then before (analog cameras) to see if a lens or camera is good or not that good.
Thanks!