The FA31 1.8 is hard to beat and certainly comparable in terms of quality with the lens you originally enquired about. Its price new is a king's ransom, though it can be bought second-hand for, I suppose, a knight's ransom.

At first hand, I can recommend Ian Cameron (google Transient Light). Most of his courses are Scottish. At second hand, I hear that Light and Land courses are good (their geographical remit is broader).

And there is a link on that site to the 100 top-selling cameras in the US. It shows, if nothing else, how differently different markets respond to what is on offer. It also shows that no Pentax camera comes within the top 100 in the US.

The contrast of the solid pier and its furniture, crisp and detailed, with the ethereal sky and sea works well.

Echoing a comment above, though not given for the same reason, I wonder what effect a lower vantage point would have had. I like the idea of a sort of infinity pier/jetty, with the end of it meeting the horizon.

Though as the commentators said (admittedly both the worse for playing chess with filled shot glasses), only Pentax could perform so outstandingly in one area (645Z) and screw up so lamentably in another (KS1).

I take it that the blue sky of nos. 1 and 2 is caused by an incorrect WB, put fully right in no.3(?). But something is not quite right with the ridge tiles in no.3, which change in colour half way along the nave.

When I remember, I usually shoot jpeg+RAW. I use the jpeg only as a reasonably standard reference to gauge broadly what colours the camera saw. Of course sometimes I 'improve' on nature, but at least I then have a sense of what I'm departing from.

You must have space for a whole colony of bugbears if you get irked by the ineluctable process of language exchange.

Agree. 'Golden Ages', moreover, usually turn out on closer inspection to be anything but golden. One difference now is the ubiquity of the phone-with-a-camera, demolishing sales of P&S cameras, cutting into the revenues of traditional camera companies.

Digitization, and the fresh investment demanded, has stirred the pot, allowing new entrants a place in the sun, driving others out, and throwing up new challenges to those adjusting from their analogue past. As always in business, it is uncomfortable and even precarious to be outside the 'top two'. I am hopeful that Pentax will thrive, but it faces formidable competition in almost every sector in which it operates, so it needs to pull more than one rabbit out of the hat.

I looked across the range of Gitzo tripods and in the end decided to get the 3532LS one, which I had used previously (borrowed) so knew I was happy with it. It is rock solid and will do any job asked of it. It is probably overkill, but a tripod (unlike a camera) is for life. The Gitzo Travellers - there are variants - are more portable, but inevitably there is some compromise. Any tripod with a centre column must be less rigid than one without, and if you extend a Traveller to full height the last set of legs you unlock will look pretty thin. In many circumstances lightness counts, and if you do a lot of hiking these are the compromises that will make carrying the thing in the first place bearable.

Agree with all smudge says about Gitzo, though I do think carbon fibre is worth holding out for, particularly for winter use! If you have the chance to get a 2nd-hand head made by Really Right Stuff you'd have a winning combination.