The 50mm is only a gateway to harder lenses. After a while you'll be hunting 200mm primes and using a 55mm f1.8 dating from the mid 1970s on a regular basis!

I haven't had any trouble with underexposure on mine - yours is in "A" mode? I know the metering can be a bit whimsical with pre-A series lenses in Manual mode.

I think the basic problem is that Jessops try to sell cameras as though they're toasters, when we all know that photography is a bit more complicated than how many slices and whether it has one of those pop-up racks for croissants.

To my mind the rot set in when they stopped selling used gear. I realise there were sound commercial reasons for this (ebay must have put a serious dent in sales) but equally once they lost that then they lost the permanence that it implied. Their new staff don't really need to know how to do anything beyond switch the cameras on and parrot specifications, presumably also steering customers towards whatever will give the best profit.

Those cases don't leave the house - they're purely to keep the dust away from the collection. I use a Lowepro Stealth Reporter for my normal kit. As I've never flown I've never had to worry about baggage allowances - so long as it'll all fit in the car then it's fine!

I had an amusing conversation with one a while ago when I went in with my brother to collect his Panasonic Lumix (it wouldn't zoom, so was being fixed). They really do not seem to know how to cope with people who own gear that they don't sell!

I'm not sure who they're selling to now. The point and shoot crowd are just as likely to buy from Amazon or a supermarket, while the DSLR owners tend to want staff who know a bit more about the gear. I know I wouldn't buy things like memory cards from them as they charge daft markups.

I think the MG is probably the best of the point and shoot SLRs - it does at least tell you what shutter speed it plans to use, unlike the MV and MV1!

The KX/MX/LX all seem to be holding their value well. The LX was always an expensive rarity for most people as it was intended as a pro camera, and it's still on many wish lists as one of the best film SLRs ever made. I'd like one but simply can't afford it at current prices.

I paid £50 for a scuffed and slightly dented but functional MX last year, I wouldn't want to swap it for a perfect one if I'm honest. I do wish that the flash hotshoe worked but as I never use a flash it doesn't cause much trouble, besides which the sync sockets work if I need one.

It's probably someone selling via Amazon who has new old stock of the cameras hanging around. I know there was someone selling brand new MZ-60s for £100 with 28-90mm lens on ebay last time I looked.

Pentax gear does seem to be on a continual rise at the moment, but I'm not sure how long this will continue for. I see a fair number of listings with things like "selling Grandad's old camera, don't know much about it", so could the eventual end of the baby boomer generation cause a flood of cameras to online auctions?

I agree about the intuitive design, which has continued to their DSLRs. I've only consulted the manual for my K-m twice, as for my older 35mm SLRs I've only bothered to download manuals to check what mysterious buttons do (usually exposure lock or backlight compensation). You could easily pick up an MX with only basic photographic knowledge and take decent photos with it.

Hmm, see, I first found the supplier that I bought my Km from via Amazon (not Simply Electronics, never dealt with them). I then went onto their website and the price difference when they didn't have to pay Amazon's charges was under £10.

Could the £80 be because if you buy through Amazon and the item is faulty Amazon will refund you and recover the money from the seller, assuming that the seller is unhelpful? Does tend to make business a bit hard for those displaying poor customer service...

I was looking at an 18-35mm for the same reason, but I hear they're not particularly wonderful lenses.

The 17-28mm fisheye will be rare and expensive surely? Ultra wide angle lenses have never been huge sellers until now.

My K-m was my first AF camera, although I've now got an MZ50 and SF7 which I bought for the lenses attached to them. Prior to that I had a K1000, then P30 and P30T

I think the 18-35mm is the only Pentax full frame wide angle AF zoom. With the DA lenses you'll get vignetting at 18mm.