Welcome, Rivvy
Here, you'll get nothing but helpful, intelligent smart-a****d comments...

OK, always helpful & intelligent, but usually just smart-a****d enough to keep things fun !

Tooks,
Should I ever make it to Lincolnshire, I would be obliged if you'd let me buy you a drink or two at your favourite watering hole.
Was that out of the manual, or some esoteric bit of Pentax magery you just happened to know?
I don't actually use AF-C, just didn't switch it all the way from M, I guess...
Thanks

I, too, thought that. I now have both. As good as the 16-50 is (and if you get a good copy, it's really good), the FA50 1.4 is better. It's the first prime I've ever owned, and though I've owned a bunch of fast zooms, I can't believe I waited so long to get the FA50 - despite reading the veterans here telling all of us to get one (at least once a week). Well, I'm convinced. You'll be fine using the 16-50 without an FA50 -- until you try one. Then you'll need to get one.

Recently picked up a new FA50 1.4, and, it being mi first fast glass, I was playing around in quite dark conditions... I thought I'd use the Focus Assist spot on the AF360 to speed Focus Lock up, but there was no red beamy thing to focus on in the SB setting. Thought maybe I'd mis-remembered something and tried the other modes, still no beam.
Read through the flash manual, and through the flash section of the K10D manual, but nothing helped.
I've pretty much decided the emitter is dead, but was wondering if anyone had something for me to try (that perhaps I missed...) or, alternately, if anyone had any idea about what such a repair would cost... (about 6 months out of warranty, wouldn't you know it...)

Thanks

You could use an extension tube or tele-converter to get around the "lens too large" problem... A friend of mine found a extension tube just long enough for her setup, and leaves it permanently attached to the mirror...

I guess it could affect infinity focus though....

Saw a guy at Just for Laughs in Montreal a few years back who included something like this in his act. He had a backpack blower with a nozzle coming around either side, one for each hand, and had two rolls of toilet paper on each nozzle... You could do that - twice the payload - just wire the second roll on the bottom of the air current with the loose end coming off the top.

The same comedian finished his act with a marshmallow cannon and a full scale battle with lights and sirens etc. It too was powered by the same blower made out of what looked like ABS... Something to work on...

That might have been the (in)famous Newfie Screech. Hmmm, how to describe screech - maybe insanely strong Rum - generally 140 proof or better - with diesel fuel undertones... Good stuff for Antifreeze, as Don suggests, and after 4 or 5 (or more, depending on the potency) it begins to taste quite good.

My 9 year old daughter has expressed an interest in photography, so I gave her my "pocket" camera, an Optio M40 to 'play' with at a wedding on the weekend.

Out of 175 shots she took in about 40 minutes most were blurry or snaps of people's backs (fairly dark in the room, onboard flash weak, shuter lag attrocious in those conditions...) but a few turned out remarkably well. All in all, probably better than I did on my first couple tries...

But - I noticed a strange effect showing up on some of the photos... At first, I assumed the lens had water apots, or something to that effect, but it was clean and shots taken before and after the posted sample are fine. This happens on about 25 shots or so... Am I correct that it's just some weird kind of lens flare - they were running some funky multi-coloured disco light whatsit...




Cant get the hang of this image post thing...



Text link - maybe someone can tell me what I'm doing wrong...

http://picasaweb.google.com/JDCairns/Waterspots#5243769949110917650

And so it begins...

(This might be fun to watch...)

Lily;

I'm not on the West Coast anymore, not far from Toronto now, but from any research I've done and the lenses I've bought, Brick and Mortar Retail stores are all pretty close in price, with the only big "in-country" savings done through the web, and the best prices I've seen are generally ProDigital2000, the place Unlocker bought his from if I recall correctly.

Many of the bigger stores, or at least the ones that actually carry Pentax stock at all, only carry the bodies and the kit lenses, and maybe a couple slower consumer zoom lenses. The smaller ones usually dont even carry that much. For example, I wanted to try out an FA50, and not one local store had them in stock. But they all had 18-55's and 50-200's...

I travel all over East and Central Canada, and haven't had any luck just picking up what I'm looking for - it usually involves having the shop order in whatever it is I currently want.

That said, if he's got an afternoon to wast.. err... shop, he might get lucky...

I lived in Burnaby (just outside Vancouver for a couple years, about a dozen years back, and know of a few shops, but they're on this link, along with others... (Note : London Drugs is known for good prices, and though not a camera store, it does carry Pentax, but not an extensive collection.)

link

Hope this helps... (And by the way... You mentioned Sigma - their EX lenses come with a 10 year distributor warranty in Canada...)