with the introduction of digital cameras their is sudenly a glut of old manualy stopped down lenses on the market by makes like elsinor and makkinon etc

these lenses were at the top of their game in yester year as are sigma and tamron now

but of course with all the stuff about centre and edge definition these lenses fell by the wayside many moons ago

back to my origonal point these lenses are cheap and very lightweight and although the edge definition may be a bit on the questionable side (i do however use a 300mm 400mm and 500 mm and always have for both motor sport and wildlife photography) with the digital camera using a very small sensor thay only use the centre of the lens

so your quids in instead of paying £300-£400 for a digital lens why not try one of these old lenses out i mean for £5-£15 its rude not to

oh and remember the focal lengths are as follows

300mm-in-35mm = 450mm-in-digital

400mm-in-35mm = 600mm-in-digital

500mm-in-35mm = 750mm-in-digital

so not only are these lenses cheap and throw away thay are light and the focal lengths are pretty impressive to (oh and thay fit with a T2 mount m42) so thay fit all your 35mm gear to

i remember the advert in the photographic press showing the MZS and its digital bother the MZD

so i could have a top pro 35mm slr camera and a digital 35mm slr as well i was exstatic i rushed out a bought the MZS as soon as it was launched

then i waited and waited and waited then their was trouble with over heating on the contax camera and finaly pentax dropped the camera i was devastated

the *istd was a consolation though so hopfully the new 10.2 meg will be everything the MZD ws going to be

cheers for reading
ali

i use peak imaging in sheffield a lot i might just send them their and have them archived onto cd

thay do a fantastic job with quick turnaround trouble is it costs :-

£1.75 for 15-24 images (per image)

£1.50 for 25-49 images (per image)

£1.25 for 50+ images (per image)

the minimum amount is 15 images

mind you if i archive 50 images that will be £62.50 still cheaper than a scanner

and i just have films archived now at the time of prossing this only costs £7.90

good plan sir may try that

ANYWAY to change the subject

i decided to archive some of the thousands of trannies i have packed up every where on to CD as you do

i have a digital camera and a zoom slide copier i thought why bother buying a scanner ha-ha all i have to do is pop the slide copier on the *istds and away we go woo hoo dosh saved

BUT the trouble is if you put a 35mm slide in a slide copier with a 35mm camera taking the pictures you get a full frame 35mm pictures (with me so far) however if you put a diital camera on the slide copier you get a cropped image

so it looks like ill have to buy a scanner after all

happy snapping nico good choice

granted this is true but my pentax cameras some of which i have had a long time my me supers have never been serviced and thay work as perfect today as thay did when purchased 26 years ago (yes i have had them 26 years my mum and dad bought me the first one for christmas when i was 13 years old)

my super As which i use for weddings and studio work mainley complete with A drives are about 15 years old (well ive had them that long anyway)

along with my MZSs and *istd/ds thay make up my kit

needless to say my kit is not limited in anyway its just personnel preference which i use for what the MZS is cracking for weddings but i the super A and drive are easier to hold being more chunky

i use the MZS for motorsport because it has the vertical release in the battery pack as does the super A but the switch is to fiddely on the super A drive

both perform as well as each other but its just a comfort thing as i dont use autofocus

however where we appear to differ is that i belive photography is a learning curve i learn a different way of doing things every time i take my camera out be it the way i hold it or programe it or just the different angle i take a shot from

but im not limited by my kit and i never upgrade for the sake of keeping up with the joneses or so people take me more seriously

i liked the MZS it was quite sexy i wanted to lick the page the first time i saw it it was porn by pentax

ive only bought digital because people ask me for it and expect it i bought a canon D300 at first but didnt like the peice of plastic i was holding the *istd/ds are all metal alloy chassis and will still be going strong when the canon has gone to the plastic recycle bin

YAWN in that case then you had your wallet slapped for £1149.94 for a nikon D200 at 10.2 meg (i get 25% off that price so £900.00 to me) so all youll need now is a second morgage for the pro nikon lenses youll need to justify the 10.2 meg capture after ll theirs no point have such a large capacity unless your using top lenses

which is a shame realy i would have gone for the fuji at half the price £679.99 and got 12.34 meg instead and then spent the other £500 on accsessories

oh well never mind i just hope for your sake thay dont release the D30 to quickley thats the same spec at £589.99 i think its been marketed at ................................oh and thats 10.2 meg as well

cheers for reading
ali

p.s. can we talk about somthing else now

firstly i would like to say to simonsteph i wasnt having a pop at you and no offence was intended

the point i was trying (rather ham fistedly) was nikon in paticular have avery nasty habbit of hastily putting together a camera to be top of the pile (this is my opinion based on their past record) and then bringing out a second model thats better and cheaper as do canon

for example the F4 pro nikon around £1800 - £2500 when it was launched then about 3-4 months later the F90X appeared it was cheaper and better than the F4 (check out all the photographic press on that score) it was the same story with the F5 price £3000-£5000 when launch ten 3 months down the line the F100 came out and blew it away

canon did the same with the D1 graet camera massive price tag 3months down the line after smacking plenty of arse apperas the D60 which wipes the floor with its big brother and so on and so forth

please dont get me wrong i am NOT slagging the oposition it was more of an air of caution to simonsteph to just bear in mind when buying the market leading brand that thay do this all the time thay market a top of the range camera and then bing out a cheaper model with all the same bells and whistles but at half the price

PENTAX have never done this they launch the MZS flagship and then the MZ series of cameras but the lower cameras have less functions than the top dog

the *istd has a flash pc socket and fast auto focus the *istds is a bit slower and has no pc cord the *ist dl has fewer focus points and fewer metering points and so on

ONE THING I WILL SAY WITH THE OPOSITION IS THAT NON OF THE CAMERAS BY THE OPOSITION BELOW THE £1000 PRICE MARK IS FITTED WITH A SPOT METER IVE PUT THIS IN CAPITAL LETTERS BECAUSE I THOUGHT IT WAS A VERY VALID SELLING POINT FOR PENTAX USERS

enough of this now im off my soap box i just thought i should clear up the point i was trying to make thanks for reading

ali

IF YOU THINK PENTAX HAVE FALLEN BEHIND THE TIMES GO TO PHOTKINA IN OCTOBER AND SEE WHAT THE OTHERS HAVE GOT THATS NEW

I WOULDNT CALL 10 MEGAPIXEL BEHIND THE TIMES

PENTAX DONT RUSH OUT CAMERAS THAT ARE SUPERSEEDED IN THREE MONTHS BY A BETTER MODEL

NIKON D100 OUT DATED AND OUT CLASSED BY THE D80

CANON D300 OUT DATED AND OUT CLASSED BY THE D350

ALL THOUSE USERS MUST BE LIVID TO FIND THEIR NEW DIGITAL CAMERA HAS LOST £400-£800 IN THREE MONTHS AND THE LOWER MODEL IS BETTER

ANYWAY BORED NOW PLEASE DONT MISS QUOTE ME AGAIN THANKS