The advantage with the two 28mm lenses I mentioned:

They have very little distortion, so they respond well to an image stitching program. I can create massive panoramic shots by stitching multiple exposures together, producing a wide angle without the distortion of a fisheye lens. Plus, 28mm is very handy as a compact walkabout lens if you get into the habit of always taking your camera with you (as you should - the interesting scenes always turn up when you don't have it to hand!)

Here's an example of such a panorama - taken with SMC Pentax-M 28mm f3.5, at f8, then stitched with the Hugin program for Linux:

[IMG]http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x21/Kingofthemountains/Landscapes/IMGP2190-IMGP2195.jpg[/IMG]

The 50mm lenses you've seen are known as primes - they have a fixed focal length so no, you can't zoom with them. The wider aperture allows faster shutter speeds but also allows you to control the depth of field and isolate the subject from the background more effectively.

Wide angle does eventually become fisheye, although I'm not sure at what point. Pentax DSLRs use a sensor which is smaller than a frame of 35mm film, so what would have been a fisheye on film becomes a wide angle on digital due to the crop factor.

As for an inexpensive landscape lens, I like the SMC Pentax and SMC Pentax-M 28mm f3.5. Two different lenses, the former is slightly better but they're both pin sharp and produce excellent results. They are manual and you'll need to learn stop-down metering, but it's worth the effort. £50 should get you a good one if you keep your eyes open and watch the ebay listings.

They also offered a 28mm f2.8, which IIRC is mechanically identical to the later M 28mm f2.8 but with non-SMC coatings. That one isn't too bad, although it lacks the saturation of an SMC lens.

Hmm, the plot thickens on the ME Super flickering.

When compared to my known good example (which has produced a properly exposed roll of film) it's reading low by about two shutter speeds. This problem shows at all apertures and even without a lens fitted.

I seem to be unable to buy a good black ME Super! I now have one with ok metering but a knackered wind mechanism (doesn't cock the shutter) and another which works but has faulty metering. Thinking I may have to give up and send the latter for a professional CLA.

Yep, it should be fine - give it a try and post some results.

The only thing I find is that hairs/dust do appear in shots occasionally - you either need to remove them digitally or clean the film with a soft brush and try again.

Interesting. I have the Super Tak 35mm f3.5 and I've never had any luck with it (or an SMC Tak 135mm f3.5) on digital. Whatever settings I try the camera consistently underexposes, which it doesn't do with K lenses.

Never too late to buy a replacement - I picked up a near mint one on ebay a few months ago which has been reunited with a 55mm f1.8.

Also worth having a look for a KX - also all manual but with shutter speed and aperture displays in the viewfinder. As my Dad owns a K2 (bought new in the late '70s) we now have all three of the original K series bodies between us!

I use an earlier version of the one shown in the link, it's a handy piece of kit and produces decent results:

Tried that once - it improved but it still isn't perfect. I'll try swapping the ones from my known good ME Super over as that doesn't flicker at all.

Well, I've bought the paint. Halfords "Warehouse Orange" spray enamel (RAL 2003). It claims to be suitable for all materials and should be reasonably hard-wearing. A quick edit to the image from the Wiki article for the ME Super suggests it'll look good.

I may also keep an eye out for a cheap 50mm in need of attention, in order to make a lens to go with it. The 50mm is a pretty simple design so I should be able to strip, repaint and rebuild without much trouble.