Wolverhampton Photography Fair

Hello, have any of you been to one of these fairs? I'm looking for a long manual lens to play with and someone said these fairs are good for picking up cheap/reasonable lenses. I'm an absolute beginner who is keen to build up a few lenses. I can't afford long AF lenses. Interested to hear from you, Thanks Rich

I quite often go to these and spend many happy hours browsing through old junk, new junk and some good stuff as well. There are bargains to be had, but things need examining very carefully.

Don't forget to haggle mercillesly and watch your bags and wallet whilst you're doing it. There are routinely pick-pockets at these events.

Unfortunately can't make this Sunday's event, but hope everyone who can finds something good.

Depends on how long is, well, long. There are a couple of fairly common and rather lovely Pentax zooms (SMC Pentax-A 70-210mm f4 and SMC Pentax-M 80-200mm f4.5) to keep an eye out for, the latter was also sold in the K series (marked SMC Pentax without the -M). Both will give a prime serious competition.

Any of the original K series Pentax lenses are worth having in good condition - they're marked "SMC Pentax" without any suffixes like "-M". These are seriously well-made, sharp lenses which can embarrass brand new glass in the right hands.

Don't just chase something like a generic 500mm prime or mirror lens, generally they're not up to much and you'll get more use from something around the 200mm mark.

Take an LED torch to check inside lenses, it should show up any dust or fungus. Check the focus is smooth and the aperture ring works properly - if you set it to the smallest aperture and move the lever with a finger the aperture should open and close snappily.

Good luck - I wish we had photo fairs near here!