I have the Pentax-F 100-300mm, and I rather like it. It's a heavy, solidly built lens with a lot of metal in the moving parts. A bit tiring to use hand held for any length of time but it doesn't feel as though it'll fall apart.

I can't comment on it compared to the other two, as I don't own either of them. It's a decent performer for a zoom though, well worth the £60 I paid for mine.

I also have a Pentax-A 200mm f4, which I'm very fond of too but it doesn't have the reach of the zoom. However, for situations when a 200mm lens is long enough I'll pick the prime as it's lighter and sharper, as well as being half a stop faster.

You don't need to be that hard-core to find them. I just have a few search terms which I look for, set it to show "newly listed" first, and then see what comes back. Got a mint ME Super with 50mm f1.7 and generic flash for £28 last year by this method, and I've had a handful of cheap mouldy 50mm lenses that have cleaned up perfectly.

I really think they're more likely to spend the R&D budget on the 645D, and go after the budget end of the medium format market. The FF DSLR market is already stuffed with a lot of competent gear, Pentax would have to pull something really special out of the hat to compete and there's still a risk of it simply not selling.

Meanwhile, a medium format system with similar build quality to their DSLRs but priced lower than the more established players could do very well indeed.

Take a look at the Lowepro system - they offer a belt and two choices of shoulder straps, one of which produces a waistcoat arrangement that you fit their Sliplock lens cases and pouches to. Not cheap but first rate quality and very comfy to wear.

It seems pretty solid - not so keen on their idea of using the suction cup to attach it as I find it less stable that way. There is, after all, a reason why we use tripods and not quadropods. Use it in the conventional manner and it's excellent. I was thinking in terms of it being ideal for balancing on rocks, my car bonnet/roof, or similar

Talking of Jessops I was in there today collecting my brother's Panasonic bridge camera (had to have the zoom button repaired). I had a brief browse of the Canon/Nikon/Sony stuff, causing one of the staff to pounce. He went a very funny colour when I said that I had a Pentax!

I now have a Slik Mini-Pro V, and it's a lot nicer than most tiny tripods!

Most smaller 'pods seem to suffer from an attitude of "no serious photographer will buy this, so we'll make it cheap and nasty". The Slik is nothing like this - it's as well made as their full size models. It's about the same length as a DVD case when folded and just feels really well engineered. The pan and tilt screws go into metal inserts rather than plastic and the top of the head has a piece of cork matting rather than plastic/rubber. Not sure how much difference the latter makes to the handling but it gives a far better impression of the product.

Photos:

[IMG]http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x21/Kingofthemountains/IMGP1233.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x21/Kingofthemountains/IMGP1235.jpg[/IMG]

The other problem I run into (especially in low light or with poor contrast) is that the camera doesn't always give focus confirmation. I know this as I've gone through "in focus" and out the other side without even a flicker!

The only snag with the Katz Eye screens is the price, and the fact that I wouldn't feel brave enough to fiddle about with my K-m.

I don't understand why they went to SDM in the first place - it makes no sense to me! What's wrong with the old screw drive mechanism, it's simple and reliable.

The worry is naturally that Pentax will abandon screw drive on future bodies, which wouldn't be good news for people who've got hefty sums invested in screw drive lenses. Yes, the new ones may be better but I'd rather upgrade because I've seen that a new lens is better, not because I've been forced to as my old one won't work with my new camera.

Am I weird in thinking that I'd actually quite like one of those transparent 35-70mm zooms? It'd certainly be different!

From watching ebay auctions for SFXs I think you probably want a Pentax-F 35-70mm for historical accuracy - many of them seem to include one of those and it appears to be a well thought of lens.

Does anyone know of a site listing which lenses were offered as a "kit lens" with which bodies?

I bought one of these shortly before I bought my K-m:

http://kmp.bdimitrov.de/lenses/zooms/short/FA28-80f3.5-5.6-i.html

It isn't a bad performer, although I later bought one of these:

http://kmp.bdimitrov.de/lenses/zooms/short/FA28-90f3.5-5.6.html

Which is slightly better, as well as being a bit longer. The silver finish is slightly annoying but it weighs next to nothing and produces decent results.

I'm considering either a 28-200mm or 28-105mm, depending on what I see at the right price. I realise the 28-200mm isn't the finest but it looks very flexible and a good second lens for those "that's interesting but I don't have the right lens with me" moments.