If you import any item from outside the EU that has a value of over approx 18 GBP, OR over approx 36 GBP (if marked as 'gift') a very good rule of thumb is to add about 23% to the item value. The total you get will not be far wrong. Be wary of items sent via UPS or Fedex, as they often charge huge fees when they knock on your door for paying the import taxes on your behalf.

"Kris, I suspect Clarky spends many a long hour researching the second-hand market, and deserves his "luck".


About 5-6 years ago I spent those long hours for about two years searching all over the world for various lenses including Pentax and eventually the ship does come in...here's some examples...to make you wince..(I still have my little black book full of purchases)

SMCM 150/3.5 (COST £55), SMCM 85/2 (£66), SMCK 20/4 (£200), SMCM 28/2 (£150), SMCA 35/2.8 (£25), SMCA* 300/4 (£179), SMCK 24/2.8 (£77), SMCM 200/2.5 (£76...YES! SEVENTY SIX QUID), SMCK 18/3.5 (£254), ANOTHER 18/3.5 (£299), SMCA* 85/1.4 (£345), SMCK 28/2 (£170), SMCA 50/1.4 (£72), SMCK 85/1.8 (£215), SMCK 105/2.8 (£90)....and many others..ahh those were the days.

The best finds were the really scare accessories like the Pentax original lens hoods for the SMCM 20/4, SMC 24/2.8 and others.

cheers Steve.

Pretty much all zooms have distortion of some sort, usually much worse than prime lenses, most zooms are quite bad, even some of the so-called renowned zooms like the Canon L 24-105mm have bad distortion, this lens is highly regarded by many, but others cannot stand it.

I would suggest many users of zooms may not ever notice the distortion, either due to the subjects they shoot, or due to simply never printing very large, or not being very sensitive to it. Whilst others may shoot subjects where the distortion stands out like the preverbial sore thumb.

Ffordes had one about a month or so ago..I think their price was about £280 ?

http://www.speedgraphic.co.uk/search_results.asp?usrID=B463545D-E36E-4F1B-BBA2-0...

cheers Steve.M. (used them quite often...very good)

One camera, one lens to start with. Any more than that will simply cause confusion, make it far more tricky to learn. If he has that much money burning a hole in his pocket, he would be FAR FAR better off with the above and a good photo course....

check out 'artisan & artist' bags. Only available from USA or Australia, they are expensive, but made in Japan and superb. I imported mine from pop photo in the USA via their ebay sales.

http://www.artisanandartist.com/bags/index.htm

http://www.popphoto.com/

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ARTISAN-ARTIST-ACAM-7100-BLACK-CAMERA-BAG-/170382089573?cm...

If any of you are REALLY bothered about avoiding distortion, you need to stop buying zooms altogether and buy primes...

Pentax DSLR's are NOT better..

Canon are not better,

Nikon are not better,

Sony are not better...they all just make DIFFERENT cameras (and lenses), not better ones..anyone who says different is a fool.

...much rather buy the Zeiss ZK 85/1.4...