What's your latest acquisition?

MPB have one for £139 in excellent condition.

That'll be a good catch for someone because, IMHO, it's an excellent, but underated lens. OTOH, I needed the lens very quickly and SRS are 20 miles/35 mins from here - whereas MPB are (I think) in Brighton and that's a lot further away!

PS: when I said that the lens was in "v.g.c" I was probably understating the condition as many people would consider it to be in "excellent" condition.

A couple of days ago a rare lens, the A 35mm f/2, popped up in a local listing in an app and I jumped on it as I don't think I've ever seen one for sale, certainly not locally. At €250 I wouldn't say it was a bargain but not a bad price given it's condition. It's M predecessor (which cost me about a third of what this did) is probably my favourite manual lens of all so I couldn't resist the A version, which is apparently optically identical but with the convenience of the A setting, which allows aperture control in 1/3 stop increments. This copy is in even better condition than the seller advertised, I'd say it's mint, and it works like a charm.

I'm a sucker for a 35mm prime as it's my preferred focal length on APS-C and I have accumulated a bit of a collection. Even better when I can also use them on film. I'd agree from what I've seen so far that it's optically identical to the M. The HD FA is certainly a bit sharper wide open but of course it lacks the tactile pleasure of using classic lenses.


Pentax SMC-A 35mm f/2 by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr


Pentax SMC-A 35mm f/2 by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr

I wanted a small pocketable camera and ended up with a Sony RX100 V off eBay. Lovely little camera but far too tiny for me so I sold it elsewhere for substantially more than I paid

Two Fuji Lenses. A 70-300 f4-5.6 + 1.4X and a 16-80 f4. A rationalization of the Fuji system while extending the focal range

I sold the K-3 premium silver edition I got a bit ago with the premium grip. I thought it was a good deal.. until it fell through today.

Apparently the unused grip that I scanned over (looked mint) and kept in the box was a D-BG8 model from the new K3iii, not the D-BG5 that the buyer wanted.

So it's coming back home 'unfortunately' (I can't be upset that the £75 grip I sold was actually a £250 grip in disguise).

Can I call it an acquisition?

My Samyang 12mm Fuji X Mount will be going up for sale as I may have purchased off ebay a Pk mount Sigma EX DG 20mm f1.8.

I saw that, thought about it for a bit but the comments on Pentaxforums weren't very encouraging

Used Pentax 18-135mm. Gifted my previous one to my dad for his K70. Now a practically permanent feature on my K-5 as a quick and dirty 'backup' camera or as a light travel setup for my K-3iii.

It may not be the sharpest lens but it is great for day to day and travel, especially if you know and understand its 'limitations' wide open. I quite like the soft corners for portraits or shots where you want focus to really be on the subject itself a a little softer around the edges.

Yeah the reviews said wide open it was poor but stopped down it's okay and AF motor is noisey. As I'll be using it stopped down and I manual focus then I may be okay.....he says

I've ordered a 2nd hand GR III

I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of SMC Pentax k 28/3.5 from Japan, 3rd purchase from there, going back to all manual.

Have seen a few Pentax bits on eBay from Japan. Do you get clobbered for import tax etc when receiving them?

So far I have had to pay the item cost and delivery to UK. The big plus for me is that the lenses that I have bought have been very accurately as described in the listing. Regards John

The K 28mm f/3.5 is a really nice lens.