Time to keep an eye out for a sanely-priced AF280T?

I can't fathom used flash prices at all. The AF280T seems to have BIN prices around the £70 mark, meanwhile I've seen the AF240Z go for just over £10 and the AF200T for about the same.

See my thread about a cheap ebay softbox/diffuser here

A lot smaller than the one you're looking at, but it worked pretty well IMO. It's a bit fiddly to attach and makes the flash quite big, so I find I only use it if I'm taking plenty of flash shots but for £4? Worth every penny!

Probably a case of something contracting in the cold and opening a gap for water to come in?

I've been playing with my new Red Snapper tripod (birthday present from brother). It's a lot better than my old Velbon CX540, much more solid.

Back to ebay annoyances. Don't you just hate it when:

You see something you'd really like (Pentax ME and 50mm f1.4 in this case) for a sane buy it now price but the seller's feedback rating is six, they only have one sale to their name, and their other items have nothing to do with photography (all of which ring alarm bells for me). I'd bite their hand off if they either had more feedback or the rest of their sales were camera gear!

Thing is, thanks to Pentax price hikes the DA 40mm is now £200+ more than the 35mm!

The 35mm also slightly faster and has a more useful field of view IMO. The plastic mount doesn't bother me as they've been producing lenses with them for over ten years now without any problems caused by normal usage. Obviously they're more fragile than metal but if you go around throwing your camera at rocks then I don't really think you can blame plastic lens mounts for breakages.

I think it's this sort of thing that annoys me most about the ball-chasing game. I remember being in Cardiff a few years ago on cup final day and being held up for ages by Police (along with everyone else attempting to use a main road) while one of the team buses barreled past.

Excuse me? I pay the same road fund licence as anyone else, I have the same right of way as anyone else. The only vehicles I will tolerate this sort of behaviour from are emergency services and bomb disposal responding to life-threatening situations, not a bunch of overpaid overgrown toddlers being taken to their week's work!

If they're worried about "security" then charter a helicopter, or travel incognito in unmarked vehicles. Worried about being late for the match? Do what we mere mortals have to and leave earlier!

I used AVG until they started scanning the entire internet with every search you made a while ago, now using Avast.

As a happy Ubuntu Linux/GIMP/Pidgin IM/Openoffice/etc user I have to challenge "you get what you pay for". I have more hassle with Windows and paid-for products than with open source!

Right, I've put one of mine into the gallery and will upload another tomorrow. Cracking lens and will probably live on the camera now unless I need wide angle or something longer.

The KM did come in a Spotmatic case, as this had a sticker inside for a firm which had ceased to exist before the KM was released (Wallace Heaton) and a Super Takumar 35mm lens attached I decided it probably held a Spotmatic originally and found a clean spotty to go in it.

The KM fitted the back half ok but the front was a bit tight around the prism housing and lens (after changing it for the K 55/1.8 I already had). My KX has its share of scuffs and marks and generally serves as my spare film body, but the KM is very close to mint so obviously I'd like to protect it while using it.

I've had a couple of the M series ERCs, neither of which was in great shape. I managed to colour in the exposed cardboard with shoe polish but they still look scruffy. One was misdescribed as an MX case as clearly some previous owner had adopted the brute force approach without noticing that the MX is a bit wider...

I may risk buying that case anyway, if I can bargain them down a bit it's worth a go. I can't see any signs of flaking there and a good going over with polish would soon cover the grey bits.

Ahh, that would make sense! Thanks!