Well you said the problem occurred with a DA lens. I'm now not clear what problem that was.

Any chance when you reply to posts you could cite the bits you're replying to by using the quote facility? It would make it a lot easier to understand you.

Sadly, all this K10D firmware rewrite stuff is pure fantasy.

I'd like a few things fixed too, but it ain't gonna happen. It would be really cool if someone disassembled the current firmware, and set up an open source project to fix things and add features. I use an open source firmware for my Linksys router, and it wasn't until people other than Linksys started writing firmware for it that the bugs finally got ironed out.

I'd pay for a 3rd party 1.4 for the K10D if it had the right features.

ISTR we have a firmware guy on the forum somewhere...

I think we'd all be delighted if a K30D came out, with 5fps (not that fps is a priority for me), low noise 12800 ISO, and a super-duper new AF system that could focus in an instant in the sort of light you'd need such high ISOs for.

Whether such a camera is an imminent realistic hope, I'd be inclined to suspect not.

I never had a DSLR until a few months after the K10D came out.

How much warning was there of its arrival on the market?

I'll give you £0.01 for the lot. If this isn't enough, please suggest an amount you'd accept.

I know this is silly, but it illustrates the difficulties with posting a classified ad without an asking price.

I do understand how it can sometimes be tricky to know what old gear is worth, but saying 'make me an offer' tends not to work unless the item is very much in demand.

In such cases, it's best IMO to either DYOR on eBay, find out what they're going for, and specify a similar asking price, or, as you say,

The other problem with selling here is that this forum is relatively well-educated in Pentax gear, compared with eBay buyers. So unless it's an item that's in great demand, recognised here as highly desirable, you're extremely unlikely to get the anomalously high prices that things often seem to go for on eBay.

As well as asking prices, it's also usual* to post close-up, sharp pictures of the items, ensuring that any cosmetic imperfections are shown.

__________________________

*Edit: I know McBrian didn't in his recent gear sale. But he's been around for a while, and has an outstanding reputation for accurate descriptions and fair dealings. No disrespect whatsoever to yourself, but you haven't yet, as far as I know.

If by this, you mean that you've observed the same progressive over-exposure with increasing F number that has been well-documented with pre-A-series lenses, then you would be the first I've seen to report this in the two years since the K10D came out.

If a DA lens isn't properly attached to the body, the absence of electrical contacts will make the camera erroneously believe that the DA lens is a manual one, and show the same behaviour as pre-A lenses.

It's very easy to demonstrate this. Put the K10D into manual exposure mode, and a DA lens on the front. Release the mount lock, and rotate the lens slightly until the contacts break - you'll see the aperture on the top LCD change to F--.

Presto, a manual lens, and pressing the green button will make it try to meter by stopping down (although to what, I have no idea, since there's no aperture ring to set the aperture, and setting it from the body is no longer possible).

Other than this, I don't think it's possible to get it to use stop-down metering with DA lenses - even with the camera set to manual, it meters wide open, and if you press the green button, it sets the shutter speed without stopping the lens down.

So if you've had exposure issues with DA lenses, I would put money on it not being the same effect.

Maybe they'd have stopped coming if you hadn't.

remove flash tube. solder in two copper nails to the flashtube leads.

you now have a dangerous stun/taser gun.[/quote]Not half as dangerous as when you're holding the voltmeter probes one in each hand.

I've heard that too, but that's a scary voltage.

It bl**dy hurt, too, when I was a little bit careless with the probes when I was measuring it..

Don't count on it - it's nothing to do with how many cells it takes. I measured the voltage between the pins on an old and very small, low GN Braun flash gun that only took 4 cells, and it was about 300V. Yes, three hundred.

As with all these flash guns that are either TTL (but not P-TTL), or have no TTL capability at all, they're fine with the P-TTL-only cameras (KxxD and KxxxD) but only in manual mode, or using the gun's auto setting and with the camera set to the sync speed or slower.

The only thing to watch with some very old guns, is if the trigger voltage is extremely high. Current wisdom seems to be that if it's under 10V you're definitely safe, and most guns are unless they're very old indeed. Best to measure it to be sure.

Good luck - look forward to hearing what you think.

SD card, though, not Compact Flash