Thanks for the detailed feedback, Zen4life. Are you going to be buying a K-3II now?
Great pictures, carolina_sky - really inspiring. Just wish that we had the colours in the UK!
UserAccessDenied - I originally repaired artifact areas by exporting a PS photo to TIFF in-camera with PS turned off, giving me the PS and non-PS versions. In the latest DCU5 (5.4.2), there is a button in the laboratory screen for turning PS on/off that allows you to export the PS version, and also the non-PS version. Then, layering these in Photoshop with the PS version on top means that you can use the eraser tool to selectively remove the artifacts, revealing the non-PS version underneath for those areas. This is possibly what the K-1 will do automatically, and which I hope comes to the K-3II via firmware update.
carolina_sky: Yes, I noticed that DCU5 wouldn't save the PS picture if PS was turned off in the software. I did a few tests a couple of days ago, and what I found was that using PEF RAWs, it would save the non-PS version IF there was no other processing other than turning off PS. Changing anything else meant that it wouldn't save. Changing to DNGs made a difference, as it saved normally even after adding other alterations.
As a footnote; my workflow always starts with DCU5 as I've found that it gives the all-round best RAW conversion that also incorporates the in-camera settings. Then, it's PS (if necessary), exposure, colour balance and tilt-shift (again if necessary) before exporting to TIFF and finishing off in ACR/Photoshop or Faststone, depending on what I'm doing. Faststone to me has a better clone tool than Photoshop.