Hi,

There is currently an SMC-K 50/1.2 on evilbay, in Switzerland..if that helps anyone...

cheers Steve.

...probably worth a small button...

Hiya,

Peter, lots of users here buy items from Jessops, I just thought they might (or might not) like to know the kind of people they are dealing with....

cheers Steve.

Hi,

William Rollason was the Chief Executive Officer of European Home Retail (EHR), and he was heavily implicated in the (subsidiary company) Farepak scandal. The company went into administration in October 2006, owing money to thousands of members of its Christmas savings club. European Home Retail allegedly moved Farepak club members' money to the parent company, EHR, which was in financial difficulty.

Rollason is a non-executive director of the photographic retailer Jessops.

Bearing in mind the current situation that Jessops find themselves in and all the negative publicity surrounding them for the last year, do they really think it wise to have as a member of their board a man who is heavily implicated in a scandal in which some 140,000 low income families lost their xmas savings?

cheers Steve.....

Hi,

I have just sent an email to the editor of that magazine, asking him to explain the so-called 'test results...

cheers Steve.

Hi,

Just to say, there should probably be a 85/1.4 A* on the Ffordes lists within 1-2 days as I am just returning one to them.

They checked it over on the phone for me and described it as having 'no marks whatsoever' on the optics. When it turned up, the front optic was absolutely peppered with so many marks (probably coating marks) that I found it impossible to count them.

So this is just a warning about its REAL condition, if anyone here spots it and fancies buying it..

I also suggested to Ffordes that they inspect lenses properly, in daylight near a window...to save us all some time, hassle and money.

cheers Steve.

Hiya,

Pentax SMC-A 50mm F1.2

SRS have been advertising one of these for about the last three months..maybe longer..

cheers Steve.

Hiya,

Just to say that in my own experience paper spec often means very little and very often real world performance can be startlingly different. If you start comparing machines of such different 'temperaments' just on paper specs then you are missing the point all together.

The PC and microsoft operating system environment is a very fragile one. I am sure many people have had system crashes, software problems, losses of data etc. Some people have problems on a daily basis, especially with the internet.

A friend of mine is a very computer 'savvy' guy and works in the IT world. He has about three PC's at home which are networked. He had such problems with the fragility of the PC & microsoft 'world' that he bought a Mac.

Overnight his problems went. He wished he had had one years ago. He has no issues with speed and has little issues with software, despite what the so-called specs say.....

cheers Steve.

Hiya,

Back to the original point about what happens to Pentax when Hoya finally dumps them..which everyone 'in the know' realises will happen at some point in time.

Here is some real 'left field' speculation mixed in with some hope, bearing in mind I am a Contax & Zeiss fan...

I believe I am correct in thinking that the Contax brand name reverts to the useage of Carl Zeiss later this year (back from Kyocera). Sony/Minolta have a tie up with Zeiss in respect of lenses for their new DSLR's and it looks like they are due to release a full frame DSLR next year.

.....now what Zeiss really need is some manufacturing capacity to make Contax brand cameras.....what if they either bought Pentax, or struck some deal with the owners to make Contax brand DSLR's?, possibly with the Pentax K mount?

maybe I have been drinking too much, but it just seemed like a solution of sorts to two companies problems...

cheers Steve.

English Canadian....MUCH better....

Hoya actually says very little other than it is too early to say anything...if you read it closely...but I think you will find they do not want the camera division which is why the whole merger is causing so much trouble..they are just being careful to not say that at this point.

cheers Steve.