They fetch a high price on ebay - hardly makes it worth getting one of those over the 21mm ltd.

Of course with most landscape photos one generally stops down to at least F8 for DOF, and so any reasonably competent lens will perform well.

Unfortunately for a wideangle prime on digital we now need to pay silly money. Wouldn't it be nice to have a budget 18/19mm lens out there to match the old budget 28s for landscape and street photography?

Just noticed this...

Never the M28 3.5 myself but it has a very good reputation. There are some remarks on Stan Halpins site

PS also watch out for the Cosina/Vivitar 100mm AF macro lenses on ebay. They are a bit plasticy but have a good reputation for sharpness. They are only 1:2 but came supplied with a matched closup lens which made them 1:1 - so make sure that is part of the deal. I've a feeling the cheap Pentax FA 100/3.5 was basically the same lens.

Oh and for range the Sigma 70-300 Apo Macro Super can do 1:2 at 300mm, and there is (or was) a special two element converter for that which takes it to 1:1. However at that length with no tripod mount on the lens keeping it steady even on a tripod can be a problem...

I suggest a cheap bellows - plenty out there on ebay. Then pick up a cheap medium telephoto lens (the M 135 3.5 comes to mind) to get a resonable working distance (if you can find the Pentax 100mm bellows lens all the better - but I think they tend to go for rather more money, being relatively rare). Alternatively a shorter lens (such as a 28mm) on a bellows will give astonishing magnification but not much working distance. To work out the approximate maximum maginification just divide the maximum bellows length by the focal length of the lens

Same here - must be a 'feature'. I do find my shutter significantly quieter than my K10 was though.

I was reading a review somewhere which sugested it was noticeably better than the competition at 1.4 (which are often very soft) but does not improve as dramatically when stopped down so it is only avaerage an more 'normal' apertures. I must admit to being tempted...

Only partly true - with lithium ion batteries it is the total amount of charging done, not the number of times you charge the battery, that counts, thus if you charge from half discharged it only reduces the life by half as much as if you charge it from fully discharged (if you see what I mean) so you can regularly 'top up' your battery without detriment to its overall life. Also Lithium bateries hold their charge very well (unlike NiMH) so a fully charged battery stays that way (or pretty much)

Finally, if you are going to store a lithium ion battery for any length of time, they are best left about half charged (probably why they usually come that way when you buy them). They should not be stored 'empty'

Do you mean 24mm 1.8 like this one?