Pentax K7 Flaw (IMO)

I just traded in my Pentax K10D camera for the new Pentax K7. Overall I'm pretty happy with the upgrade, but there's one thing that really annoys me.

Both the K10D and the K7 have a "Green" mode where everything is automatic and many settings are ignored (forced to safe, default settings).

But in the K7, Green mode now forces saving the images as JPEG - RAW is not allowed.

I shoot in RAW 100% of the time - it gives me a lot more control over the final images, and using Lightroom (or Picasa) it's just as easy to handle RAW as JPEG - there are no extra steps or things to deal with.

This means I can't use Green mode on the K7. It's not the end of the world because "Program" mode can also be used fully automatically. You just have to be remember to put settings back to "normal" after changing them. On the K10D I'd use Program to do something different, but I could just flip back to Green mode without worrying about what settings I'd changed. I'd only have to worry about it when I went to Program mode. Now, staying in Program mode, I'll have to be more careful.

I'm sure Pentax had reasons for doing this, but I think they made the wrong decision. Beginners who can't deal with RAW are going to leave their camera set to JPEG. Anyone who is advanced enough to change their settings to RAW presumably did it deliberately (like me) and doesn't want it overridden by Green mode. Besides, given the cost of this camera, the market is not beginner newbies anyway.

It's a fine line between "protecting" users from shooting themselves in the foot, and being over-protective and stopping them from doing valid things. This time I think they went over the line.