I'll have to get a couple of the better shots with mine uploaded - I haven't done anything particularly impressive so far but when taken into one of my favoured locations (Elan Valley) it's a worthy successor to the old M 50mm f1.7 as a standard walkabout lens. It produces stunning colours from scenes which looked fairly dull to the naked eye and is sharp throughout the aperture range.

It's also surprisingly nice to focus manually, as compared to the 18-55mm which lacks feel (not a problem as I've only used it in MF once or twice for night shots). I had assumed that this was due to the AF drive needing as little resistance as possible but the 35mm feels well damped considering it's mostly plastic.

At an educated guess (based on ebay prices):

135mm £30-£50 (can vary wildly but £50 seems a reliable budget to get a good one)

50mm £20-£30 (although I've seen them as low as £15 in good condition)

The Takumar 28-80 is probably worth around £10-£20, this and its Pentax-A badged twin aren't great lenses although you do get the odd person putting mad buy it now prices on them and hoping the Takumar name will boost it.

I've just found a couple of ebay listings for these, and while I know the front part is a royal pain I do find the back part excellent for protecting the camera from scrapes. Only thing is I don't know whether the cases are real leather or the cardboard-based stuff used on the M series? If the former I can safely buy a scruffy one and give it a good polish, the cardboard type seem impossible to restore fully as the fake leather outer tends to crack and flake off.

There's one here for a photo of what I'm on about.

I've tried a few shots of ducks on the local lake so far, believe it or not I think they'll come out ok. I find it's best if you meter while approaching the subject with camera hanging around your neck, at the same time setting aperture/shutter. Then just pop lens cap off, focus and shoot. Another little dodge I've had to use is setting the meter to 200 ASA with a 400 ASA film, to take account of the yellow filter.

Have around 29 frames left on the film, just waiting for something interesting to use them on.

As I now have the correct 55mm lens for this I thought it deserved a few shots:

[IMG]http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x21/Kingofthemountains/IMGP4605.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x21/Kingofthemountains/IMGP4607.jpg[/IMG]

The light meter does work and is pretty accurate - within half a stop compared to my K-m.

I'll let you know if I see one!

Everyone's favourite rip-off merchant has one for £88 or best offer at the moment, might be worth seeing if you can bargain them down a bit. It's a great piece of kit but £90 for an old manual lens is stupid money.

I'm considering whether I can justify a Super Takumar version. Thing is, when I bought the Spotmatic and SV I already had very nice examples of the Super Tak 35mm f3.5 and S-M-C Tak 135mm f3.5. I've since added a Super Tak 55mm f1.8 to complete the classic three primes which the original owner of the SV would probably have had (still keeping eyes open for a cheap 50mm f1.4 for the Spotmatic), and my intention was to avoid ending up with a pile of M42 lenses as the K-m's metering doesn't like them. I guess the 28mm would fit in nicely though...

I've been trying to take long exposure shots with my K-m recently (longer than the thirty seconds it offers) and I've found a slight snag. Obviously "B" holds the shutter open for as long as you hold the button down, fine on film as you can use a cable release. How does it work on this camera with no cable release socket? I tried using the infra-red remote but the shutter just opened and closed immediately!

One test shot I've taken was a repeat of the "main road at night in snow" I posted a while ago. You could always try shooting the street outside with a tripod in an upstairs window?

I would be sorely tempted by the 40mm Ltd but for the fact that I've tried my M 40mm on digital and found the field of view a bit tight for my uses. I find I need to get in close to crop out unwanted distracting elements so 35mm is about as narrow as I'd want for a walkabout lens.

The 40mm is, however, superb on film giving a usefully wider field of view than the standard 50mm.

Now I know this is a bit ancient but bear with me - I've just loaded a roll of slide film into this '80s monster and had a thought. The flash hotshoe on the SF series is off to the right hand side above the grip, meaning that you can deploy the onboard flash at the same time as having a detachable one fitted.

If you use both (with the additional flash in TTL mode) what happens?

You'll love it, would be my verdict on the 35/2.4. Mine hasn't been off my camera since I unwrapped it on Friday, it's a worthy modern successor to the M 50mm lenses on film SLRs.

What I can't really explain is why. I'm still learning to use it properly and so far I've only managed a handful of shots I'm completely happy with, although that's normal for me with any lens. It's sharp throughout so you can use depth of field as artistically as you like, bokeh is unobtrusive and colour rendition is similar to other DA lenses. It's actually quite pleasant to focus manually (unusually for an AF lens) and I'm determined to try a couple of shots with it on my SFX on the next roll of slide film, as that body can force it to use different apertures in shutter priority mode.