Think I just found it via their Amazon Marketplace site - no mention of the walking stick top though I bet I can find one elsewhere or make one from a suitable doorknob and the right size nut.

The Bottle pod/Window clamp thingy is also tempting at £4. Then again I already have a table-top tripod that I don't use nearly as often as I should!

Still talking of monopods, I will be going to the RIAT airshow in a couple of months time. Is there any point in my trying to find a suitable tall monopod, given that I'll be using my old Pentax-F 100-300mm zoom and trying to keep shutter speeds down around the 1/125 or 1/250 area in order to avoid the "frozen rotors/props" effect on aircraft and helicopters?

Obviously for fast jets I'll be using the fastest shutter speed that I can and I will want to have the camera completely hand-held in order to track them, but I'm just wondering whether a monopod would be worth having for the slower subjects?

I would quite like one of those trekking pole/monopod things but none of them seem to extend long enough for me. I need a 'pod roughly 160cm tall to put the camera at eye level, as bending to a shorter one is less stable than holding the camera as well as giving me horrible backache!

I quite like it TBH - very sharp fading to very soft along the length of the spanner. I've been trying to get a decent shot of my MX + winder + M 35-70mm today and DOF is a real pain. I went for focussing about halfway along the lens barrel and then stopping down to f22, the lettering is still legible but not exactly sharp.

Plus it's properly exposed so you know the camera is fine!

Neither of those will be cheap though. If you can put up with stop-down metering (and it really doesn't bother me for general photography) then what about the M 28mm f3.5? It's incredibly sharp, compact, handles nicely and doesn't seem to have been recognised as a superior lens to the f2.8 versions as you can pick them up for £30-£50. I use mine for giant landscape panoramic shots as it has very little distortion, so the images are a good fit when stitched together.

In all honesty the only filter I would advise to begin with is a polariser. I got mine from here, it's cheap and cheerful and I have yet to spot any flaws in the glass or coating.

Leave the others until you work out what sort of photography you enjoy most, and which lenses you'll use most. The one in that link will fit your kit 18-55mm lens, that's exactly the setup I used on my K-m to take this a week or two after buying the camera:




You may want to consider Cokin or Lee filters, I'm not so keen as they require a large filter holder to be attached and given I'm prone to using old manual primes with a view to making the camera more compact and less of a "mug me" sign the filter holder would rather defeat the object!

Skylight/UV filters are a personal taste thing. There's no technical need for them on digital, some people like them as lens protectors while others feel they have an adverse effect on image quality. Personally I don't bother with them, my old lenses are not horrifically expensive and I always put the cap on when I'm not taking photos.

That's a classic - wonder how long it'll be before some innocent bystander gets brained with a camcorder falling from roughly 4m high after the user loses their grip on the monopod?

It could also make for a novel homage to Freddie Mercury's microphone stand-waving antics, by whirling the end of the 'pod around while taking photos...

Clearly none of the staff are linguistics students, as the "pod" part is Latin for "foot". Rather implying that you're supposed to have that part on the ground, rather than waving it in the air!

I think it comes down to reading listings carefully and looking at their other items. In the case of that zoom the seller said that they had used it on their LX for years, admitted it was a bit scruffy but said that the optics were perfect. They clearly knew what it was and how to use it, which suggests honest enthusiast. Equally, if all their listings are used camera gear and they sound like they know the subject it's usually a good sign.

Scam artists don't usually bother to research what they're baiting their victims with, and aren't likely to construct a scam around ancient manual lenses. I would be more suspicious of things like "NEW Pentax K-X" where the photo is a library shot and the description has been copied directly from the Pentax website. Ok for a dealer site with a proper address and phone number but I wouldn't go near an ebay listing like that.

I think it'd be a better idea to have a sticky thread with a link to the relevant pages of the Dimitrov site - it's an incredibly useful resource for all things Pentax, although it doesn't help with LBA as it's rather like a catalogue of lenses to keep an eye open for...

There are plenty of perfectly decent clones available from the usual Hong Kong Ebay sellers. I paid about £5 for mine and it works perfectly, decent range and feels solid enough.

Don't be tempted by the "loads of buttons" ones, most of the keys won't work on a DSLR (it's a standard remote they sell with different codes for different devices) and it'll just be a bulky confusing nuisance. The one in the link above is pretty much identical to the original Pentax, with a single button to release the shutter.

There was an Amazon Marketplace seller offering cheap Ilford HP5 last time I looked...

If the OM1 was able to use a dedicated flash and motor drive you could consider adding those to the outfit. Wouldn't cost much and it'd make for a very attractive display camera when you're not using it.