I didn't actually say that, if you read carefully.

Last weeks find: A Pentax-M 35-70mm f2.8-3.5 for £16

It's a bit scruffy on the outside with a couple of scrapes/gouges and worn paint, but the optics look mint apart from the usual dust. It cleaned up very nicely and will be going on my MX, as it's more flexible than the 50mm, not much slower, and the image quality isn't far behind.

I'm actually wondering if this lens was planned to be released with the K series, but postponed and ended up as an "M". Dimitrov lists a prototype K 35-70mm f2.8 constant aperture that looks very similar indeed, and the lens has the characteristic ribbed areas just in front of the aperture ring that seem to be a feature of the K series. Did Pentax attempt to offer it as an f2.8, decide that it was too expensive or not good enough, and then rework the design before releasing it in 1979 as part of the M series?

To me, that's when it crosses the line. Photographs of mangled metal are one thing, but when you show casualties (injured or dead, or even just the bloodstains left behind) or take close-up shots of abandoned possessions it crosses the line into unbelievably bad taste.

So yes, I defend the right of the individual to photograph in a public place including accident scenes, but we also need to realise that we have a responsibility not to produce tasteless voyeuristic images. The first act is to call for help and then give what first aid you can, the camera only comes out when the ambulances have left.

Yes, you set it to the focal length of the lens - 50 for a 50mm, 28 for 28mm, and so on.

Zooms are a bit tricky. As the only manual zooms I use on digital are quite short (these being the better quality/faster lenses) I tend to set the shake reduction for the short end of the zoom range, so for a 35-70mm I set it to 35. It won't work so well at the 70mm end but it seems to be better to have too little reduction than too much, and we all coped for years without SR on film so providing your hands and stance are steady it'll be fine.

The Mull of Kintyre crash is dodgy as they come. There is no way that it was the aircrew's fault, the facts just don't add up.

I have read that RAF test pilots refused to carry out the single engine test (simulating an engine failure) on the MK2 Chinook when it was first introduced, as they didn't trust the electronics on the "good" engine to keep it running. There is also the fact that the transponder on the aircraft, when found, was two digits away from the emergency setting. Apparently there is no way that the impact could have done this and it was a long way from the correct setting for the flight. The aircraft hit the hill belly first too.

This, to me, adds up to a picture of pilots trying to call for help in a struggling helicopter which was refusing to climb. The chair of the original investigation didn't accept that it was pilot error but was instructed to record that verdict. See, there was a multi-million pound order to Boeing involved and the government of the era didn't want to tell the USA that the new helicopter was junk. Apparently this was more important than the reputations of four very experienced helicopter crew.

The other point to make is that providing you stick to public rights of way then you don't need this. There will be plenty of places where footpaths, bridleways, etc either cross the line or run alongside it, all you need to do is get hold of a map and find them.

The pass would make sense if you take railway photos to sell to the media, as the investment should pay for itself due to your photos being from a different location to everyone else's.

How on earth can you have the "smallest APS-C"? Surely they're all the same size (that of the old APS film frames)?

There seems to be a steady supply of new DA 50-200mm lenses on ebay for around the £70-£100 mark. I think a lot of kits must have been split as I can't see where else they're coming from at so far below RRP.

I suspect they are mostly aiming this at the lunatics who lose all common sense at the sight of a train. There seem to be more than a few out there judging by comments I've seen on preservation forums before now.

The railways are merely covering themselves against clueless people going trackside and getting turned into strawberry jam by a loco after suddenly realising how close they were standing!

The A 200mm is a cracking lens - here's a crop from an image taken with mine:




I didn't dare move, hence the branch on the right!