It seems to be possible to avoid listing postage charges to the UK from the rest of the EU, so why we can't say we're not willing to post to Italy is beyond me.

Mind you, I think German ebayers are still sore from 1945 judging by the way they charge outrageous sums to post to the UK. Explain how it apparently costs £6 to post an item from Holland and £14 to post the same thing from Germany! I can only assume that they don't like the effort involved in posting things here and set a fee which makes it worth their while to do so.

Never mind embarrassing items. I managed to inadvertently create the most suspicious Amazon basket ever by ordering a mattock and then thinking that I wouldn't mind a copy of Murder on the Orient Express on DVD, so adding it to the order...

I wish ours did film developing at that price - I'd probably shoot colour negatives then rather than B&W which I can develop and scan at home.

Tesco "reduced for quick sale" items never fail to amuse. Recent ones included mangoes which weren't even ripe yet, let alone about to go out of date!

Anyone tried the digital photo printer machines at their local supermarket? Tesco have a few and I've been tempted to give them a try, but I don't have a lot of use for postcard-sized photos. I tend to print A4 and hang the results on the wall!

Unless you find an SP500 with a "Made in China" sticker I think it'd be hard to prove either way. Some of the Spotmatic tooling undoubtedly ended up in Hong Kong as the K1000 was eventually made there and the two cameras pretty much share their mechanism.

They could well have used Chinese plants to make the straps, or the boxes, or cases, or lens caps. I know I have a push-fit rear cap for a lens with "Taiwan" on it, it must date from the K or M era as it lacks the wide flange to protect the A contacts.

They currently have a Marklin digital train controller of mine on the way from Germany. Just trying to figure out why it took the German ebay seller a week to wrap it up and get it to a post office!

Yep, that's the answer. I wasn't sure at what point the existing SDM lenses converted the DC supply from the camera batteries to an AC one to drive the motor - whether it was converted by the camera or by the lens.

I always thought that the first batch K1000s had the serial number stamped on the top plate (and picked out in black) and "Made in Japan" stamped into the rear of the top plate like the KM/KX/K2.

I know the AoCo logo hung on for a while as I have one which was definitely made in China (no made in Japan lettering anywhere), it's still all-metal and has the AoCo logo on the pentaprism.

If you want a big, beefy off-camera flash then look for a Metz 45CL-1. You'll need to use your camera in manual mode but the flash is able to offer some automation - basically it will vary its output to get a good exposure assuming that you've set aperture and shutter speed to what it expects.

If you want something smaller then look for an AF200T, AF280T or AF240Z. All of these will work with the Program mode on Pentax DSLRs to give some automation, or you can use them manually.

The old AF160 is actually pretty handy for such a tiny flash - I bought one for my ME Super but it worked perfectly on my K-m, although it's nothing like as powerful as the other units mentioned.

Any word on whether these new lenses will be compatible with the existing SDM bodies? IIRC the current system uses an AC supply from the body contacts?

Stick it on the shelf by the radiator for a few days, and don't even think about packing it into a sealed case without a silica gel bag.