"Why would you need a winder at all, there's no film"

....have you forgotten that the wind on lever on a film camera also cocks the shutter?

"but it's only fair to mention that some listing fees are going down too, some to nothing at all"

...not exactly a big deal...reducing listing fees by 10-20 PENCE whilst hiking the FVF by lots of POUNDS...I dont see any celebration in the listing fees drop.

"The PayPal fee is no more than 3.4% + 20p. I don't know where your "20-25% combined" figure is coming from"

...not quite right. The figures you quote are the BASIC UK-UK fees. If you sell overseas, the rates increase and also alter depending on the payment method used.

Many ebayers have calculated that the combined fee 'take' of ebay + Paypal was approx 17% BEFORE the fee hikes...my guess of the new combined take was the 20-25%...

" The fees will only go down if the number of customers goes down"..

....also a wrong assumption. Over the last financial year ebay has for the first time in its history lost customers...all sellers are down in number...especially private sellers. The number of listings has dropped and also their profits are down.

cheers Steve.

Hi,

From today, ebay final value fees (FVF) for private sellers on auctions goes up to a flat rate of 10%. This is charged on the final high bid price.

Before it was 8.75% on the first £29.99 of the final sale price and only 5.25% on the rest over £29.99....so this is a huge increase, on top of about 3 other increases in the last 18 months.

Any items over about £100 will now have a massive hike in fees.

eg Item sells for £200...

BEFORE..8.75% of 29.99 (£2.62) + 5.25% of 170.01 (£8.93) TOT £11.56 FEE

NOW.....10% of all the £200 = £20.00 FEE

Before the hike, you could approximate that ebay + paypoos fees were about 17% combined on most items.

I guess the combined fee is now something like 20-25%

happy selling....NOT.

Hiya,

Either Pentax 43/1.9 OR a Voigtlander SLII 40mm f2.

cheers Steve.M. (UK)

Direct from the (Pentax) horses mouth...

...seems the 645D is back on the agenda.

...seems FULL FRAME is OFF the agenda

...seems the next DSLR is due this summer and will be an up market compact one (smaller than K20D)....whooppeeeeee.

http://photo.net/pentax-camera-forum/00SiZm?unified_p=1

Hi,

Check out this sellers feedback...it might be 99%, but they have 17 neutrals and 13 negatives in the last 12 months. In comparison, I have far more feedback with a big fat zero of neuts & negs in the last 12 months. Just assuming a 99% positive score means a seller is 'good' is often mis-leading.

Use this site (link below) to check ALL a sellers neuts & negs...seeing them all along side each other reveals any worrying patterns....

http://www.toolhaus.org/cgi-bin/negs?User=pentaxuseruk&Dirn=Received+by

(This site may load slowly)

If my memory is correct, I think this is the same seller who used to charge sky high rip-off p+p charges...eg lens caps at 0.99 start price with £5-6 p+p...so as to avoid ebay FVF fees by loading the price on the postage. I see he now loads the price on the item....I guess buyers complained.

cheers Steve.M.

Thanks for all the responses..

...I always use manual focus point selection...I do not often use 'auto' anything...prefering to have as much control as possible. This was just my very first noticeable difference I found...I did expect some pros & cons...the same as any other camera. The reason I have moved back to Pentax is I prefer their combination of 'pros & cons' to the others....

cheers Steve.

Hi,

These are just my very first impressions about the K20D....I was expecting the AF to be worse than the Canon 40D I have been using...but it seems quite a bit worse. I compared the 40D + EFS 60mm macro to the K20D + FA-D 50mm macro. The 40D always locks on focus to anything in any light, both silently and within a split second. The K20D sounds very rough in comparison, takes longer and sometimes even with the subject in light shadow takes 2 or even 3 attempts to lock focus.

Is this normal?, I know many people rate Pentax's AF system as poor, but I did not expect a 'night & day' difference to the Canon. Is the FA macro poor? will different Pentax lenses improve the AF to any great extent, or is this one of the downsides of the Pentax DSLR's?

cheers Steve.M.

cheers guys, I thought it might be.

Hi,

Another SRS customer, VERY pleased with their service so far.

The new K20D though rattles. When I hold it in one hand and just gently tip it back and forth, something inside the body is sliding back and forth also. I can not only hear it, but feel it. I removed the battery and it was still there...is it something to do with the SR?

cheers Steve.M (back in the Pentax fold)