The Takumar 28mm f3.5 is reckoned to be one of their best 28mm lenses ever made, only snag is that you'll need an adapter to use it on your K10D as it's screw mount rather than K mount.

There was a Pentax-M 28mm f3.5, that comes up on ebay pretty often and is a much better performer than the 28mm f2.8.

There's one of the Pentax-M 28mm f3.5 lenses on ebay at the moment for £44. I have one and it's a much sharper lens than the f2.8 version, so I'd pick it in preference to the faster lens.

The 50mm f2 is perfectly usable for landscapes (for many people this was the standard all-rounder lens), but the 28mm will naturally give you a wider field of view.

I think a lot of it may be down to news agencies inviting J Q Public to send in their photos of a news event. Much cheaper to deal with someone who's dead pleased to get £50 for a couple of shots from his camera phone/P&S compact than a pro who knows what they're worth and that there are other agencies who'll bid for them. After a few years expectations drop to the level where you can just lend a researcher a camera and tell them to go out and get a photo or two to illustrate the article.

The BBC in particular seem gripped by "send us your photos". Very cheap for them (I doubt people get payment, just a credit) and ticks all sorts of boxes about being relevant/inclusive/insert buzzword of the month. Some are good, some are cliched and tedious.

I agree about speed - some of the most iconic photos are terrible in artistic terms but because the photographer pressed the button at just the right second they captured history.

I highly recommend Charlie Brooker's "Newswipe", his language can be a bit fruity but it's an absolutely spot-on satire on modern news reporting.

Shift lens!



No, seriously, don't. I have one of the non-shift versions of that lens and while mildly amusing to play with it isn't the best £15 I've ever spent.

Thanks John, doesn't look like I'll be able to find out then!

I get the impression that the K series bodies outlived the lenses, certainly my Dad's K2 (bought new in 1978/79) came with an M 50mm f1.7 lens, my K1000 (similar vintage judging by lettering) had a 50mm f2 attached when I bought it used in the mid 1990s which I'd guess to have been the original kit lens. Could it be that unsold K series bodies were sent out as kits with the later lenses in an effort to clear the decks for the M series?

Related to K series so I'll post it here - does anyone know how to interpret Pentax serial numbers?

I'd quite like to work out when my K series lenses were made (more precisely than 1975-77), obviously lower serial numbers are older but I know some companies do things like assigning a particular first digit to certain products.

Looks good - I'm not sure about the dust part though. I don't have much trouble with it and all I do is follow a few simple steps:

Set camera to shake the sensor when switched on.
Turn the camera off while changing lenses.
When changing lenses have the new lens ready to fit as soon as you take the old one off, and hold the camera facing downwards.
Avoid changing lenses in very dusty areas.

This could be extended with advice on buying older lenses as well, although I think that would have to be specialised for individual brands. For example, I've no idea which of the Minolta 50mm lenses is best for a Sony DSLR, but I do know that you can't go wrong with a Pentax 50mm f1.7.

There are a few of these about. I think most IT staff would suggest burial in an anthill as a fair punishment for the scam artists behind them!

I've only tried SR on the K-m but it's pretty impressive - even hand-held shots in near darkness came out surprisingly well (in the first few days of owning the camera when I was trying all sorts to see what happened). We're all clearly odd in actually liking a camera with a decent weight to it too - I find it helps to hold it steady.

Which should just stick to testing compacts for the holiday snaps crowd, as anyone buying a DSLR will be looking to media that actually displays some photographic knowledge for reviews.

Their motoring reports are a scream. They've been known to mark cars down for being "difficult to park" in the past. Since when has a lack of driving ability on the part of the tester been a reason for giving a poor rating?

Bought the K-m after a bit of research, it was basically the best camera available for the money. Being able to use older lenses was also attractive, and I've been very happy with it.