I'd go for the f1.7, with a view to buying an f1.4 later if you see one for a good price. Manual focus lens prices seem to have got ridiculous of late, especially A series primes.

Bear in mind that if you end up with both and decide to sell one you won't lose anything financially. Prices are either stable or rising.

Now that I like - will keep my eyes open, thanks!

I did find some neat ones where the reflector folds up, but they all appeared to be the bulb type.

As I now appear to have a functional ES II I'm considering looking for a flashgun of a similar vintage. Does anyone have any ideas? I don't want one where you have to replace the bulb after every shot, but I'd like something that performs well, looks nicely retro and will fit on a bracket next to the camera with the sync cord providing a trigger.

I know I could just use any old flash on the hotshoe, but that won't look anything like as good. For once, trigger voltage does not matter!

I feel the comments about a 200 page manual that you need to learn are rather unfair. I've only had to dip into the manual for my K-m twice, once to work out how to use Pictbridge and once to figure out what "Progam AE" mode is.

Considering that my most advanced SLR before then was a P30T I don't think that's too bad - it says a lot for how well thought out the menus are that you can just fit the lens, load an SD card and batteries, switch on and figure the rest out by playing with it.

I went into my local Jessops a week or two ago in search of a 49mm lens cap, and found that they had a sale on. A couple of bargain bins full of old film stuff - ended up paying £1.60 for the lens cap and another £7 or so for a slide box and 5m flash synch extension cord. Worth a look if you have one near you as they seem to be getting shot of all sorts of old kit. I nearly bought a handful of developing chemical bottles (the sort you squash down to remove the air before screwing the cap on) but I already have plenty of them.

Thanks for that chaps - I'll keep an eye out for one of the SMC Taks. I'm planning to shoot a roll of film with the Industar 50mm first though, to check the camera is metering correctly. Takumar M42 lenses seem to be fetching silly money at the moment so I'm in no hurry.

Will find more locations and continue to shoot rolls of black and white. Looking at Llyn Clywedog after finding a shockingly bad photo of the dam taken when I was about 14!

I've just made a replacement door from a bit of plastic sheet (Plastikard, for any other modelmakers out there) and a couple of bits of adhesive copper tape. It also relies on a couple of bits of gaffa tape to stay put but doesn't look too bad and it seems to work.

I know that the ES series were the final M42 Pentaxes, with a bayonet-type thing to avoid stop-down metering that was offered by the SMC Takumars. However, I've also seen an early Auto Tak with what sounded like a very similar system - are they compatible or would it be stop-down metering only?

Well, it's here - and it works! Just needs a battery door, the meter powers up if I jam some batteries against the terminals. Not in bad condition either, the rewind crank is bent (the knob part, not the shaft going down into the camera) but it still works and apart from some slight brassing it's a pretty tidy example.

Does anyone know if the battery door from another Pentax M42 camera would fit? Just thinking this would make it easier to find one.

Try http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/New-Pentax-MX-Camera-Faux-Case-for-SLR-Film-Camera-case_W0...

They look ok, I've not had my hands on one though