Hi Thomas,

A few observations:

You say you want to use this fast lens wide open or near to wide open..bear in mind this is at the lenses worst apertures quality wise...so adding a converter which further degrades quality is a very bad idea..

...and cheap converters are VERY bad indeed. If you want to use your lens wide open and get anything like decent quality then you have no choice but to buy a good prime lens. If you want to approach the quality of your girlfriends Canon 85mm lens then you can forget any converter idea or any Jupiter lens.

"maybe a quality but cheap 1.4x converter would be the most cost effective solution? ....this will not give anything like the results from the Canon lens you mention either I am afraid. And do not forget..QUALITY and CHEAP never go together.

If you start scratching around for cheap compromise solutions all you will end up with are cheap compromise photos. I would suggest the only way you will get near the Canon 85mm without breaking the bank is to wait patiently for a Pentax 85mm f2 or f1.8 to show up..

cheers Steve.

Hi Thomas,

I buy and sell older manual focus gear including Pentax K for a hobby. You have a choice of two more affordable lenses. The later pentax SMC-M 85mm f2 lens and the fairly scarce SMC-K 85mm f1.8 lens.

They both appear on ebay, though the pentax DSLR users have been buying them up like wild fire in the last two years and they appear much less frequently than they did only 3 years ago.

You have four ways to find one. Set up a 'favourite search' on ebay so that when one appears then ebay email you. You could also keep regularly checking dealers websites who are well known for stocking used Pentax K gear. You can attend camera fairs where I have found the M 85/2 in the past. You could also do google searches for them, I have found used lenses for sale this way.

You can expect to pay approx £100-180 GBP for the M 85/2 depending on condition and approx £150-300 for the K 85/1.8.

cheers Steve.M.

Hi,

Lilly...GOOD...well done..keep going..

it is just so nice to see a landscaper NOT trying to be Bl**** Joe Cornish for a change. If I never see another ND grad/polarised earlylight blah blah tedious in the extreme shot it will be too soon..

SO WELL DONE YOU!!

cheers Steve.

Hi,

We went to Turkey last year and one thing to watch out for is that since the terrorist scares, more and more landmark buildings are installing x-ray machines. We went to three mosques, all of which insisted on putting all hand bags and camera bags through x-rays.

Also, many airport staff will not be helpful when asked to do a hand search, this is especially true of UK airport staff.

cheers Steve.

Hi,

Rockwell is one of the webs biggest idiots. He just shoots his mouth off to raise attention to his site. Many of his so-called reviews are mired with schoolboy errors and nonsense and it is very clear he does little or no research. He also contradicts himself all over the place. You show one example..he says no 'serious' photographer ever used any Nikon product, then has to back pedal when he sudddenly realises they have made superb large format lenses for years...classic Rockwell...PLONKER.

cheers Steve.

Hiya,

"Sam Adams Boston Lager"

...only a welshman could suggest drinking that pond water...

cheers Steve.

Hi,

It is foolish to 100% believe ANYTHING on DP review, or for that matter anything on the internet..or any camera reviews, especially in AP...

cheers steve.M.

Hiya,

"Was that a serious question?"

George..I worked in retail for years at middle management level. Sometimes I had occasion to train people on the EPOS stock system and as soon as you started to mention minus figures quite a lot of people glazed over at first, even some managers..of course the one thing to always bear in mind is that the figures are ALWAYS wrong..

cheers Steve.

Hi,

"Well, I would assume that -13 in stock is no stock and 13 orders already in and paid for"

John..you assume correctly. The computer screen in the branch must show the branch stock levels via the EPOS stock system that most retailers use. The assistant was just saying what the screen said, without bothering to explain clearly to the customer what they meant..nothing changes.

cheers Steve.

Hi,

The list of people attending is interesting..

Canon..NO (same as last year..no great loss)
Pentax..NO (if thay want to break the DSLR market and when they have such a good product as the K10D this is a HUGE mistake)
Sony/Minolta...NO (ditto Pentax)
Olympus..NO
Alpa...YES
Gandolfi...YES
Contax...YES (seriously..they are showing on the list..should be interesting...an empty stand)

cheers Steve.