Ebay prices are weird.

About two months after buying my K-m I managed to get hold of an SMC Pentax 55/1.8 for £8. I rather thought such bargains had disappeared now, but early this year I spotted a minty black ME with 50/1.7, strap, ERC and manual. It turned out to be very original (the manual has the serial of the body printed inside) and in perfect working order with only a little scrape on the lens mount surround. Price? £20!

I've since seen someone attempting to get £120 BIN for an MV1 and things like the non-SMC A 28-80mm with asking prices of £70 or so. There doesn't seem to be any logic at all!

Low energy lightbulbs are a joke. One of the two in my room just expired after much flickering and a loud buzz. Can't help thinking I had incandescent ones last longer...

I think I'll have to try going out with the 18-55mm set to 21mm and see whether I get on with it. I bought the 50-135mm because I wanted a decent telephoto and felt it'd be more useful to me than the 70-200mm f2.8s I was also looking at. The Pentax lens is much smaller and lighter than the Sigma or Tamron lenses, which is helpful when you're going to be carrying it for long periods.

Have a look for the Metz 45CL-1 (not the CT-1 as some of those have trigger voltages which can fry DSLRs). Plenty of power, has a bounce/swivel head, and can be found used for £30. Might need a new battery pack but mine seems ok so far on the original Nicads (included a charger). They also made diffuser and telephoto attachments, the diffuser essentially being a pale plastic panel and bracket which bounce the flash forwards after you point it upward.

I'm not fond of ultrawide lenses, as I always find them too short. I also think they're getting a bit over-used, especially in the "stuff something/someone in the foreground to make it interesting" style of photography which seems to be popular at the moment.

My interest in the 21mm would be as an ultra-compact walkabout lens. I have tried 40mm and found it too long for digital (the M 40mm now turns up on various film bodies as I find it perfect there) so the DA 40mm won't suit me, but my theory is that the ideal digital standard prime needs to be somewhere between 20mm and 30mm.

If you can stretch to the DA 40mm and 70mm you'll have the full set of Pentax pancakes. That said, I think I'd go for the 50-135mm over the 70mm for the flexibility. It may be f2.8 rather than f2.4 but I doubt there's much able to match it from any brand.

I went for the 50-135mm now as SRS seem to have them for about half RRP at the moment. It was actually cheaper than the used example they also had for sale!

Yep, you would need to include "Do not leave camera in direct sunlight" but if it could charge from ambient light out of strong sun then it should be useful. I have a solar powered phone charger (actually more like a rechargeable battery which can either charge itself from the solar cell or USB) which charges in most light conditions.

Didn't Ricoh make a solar powered SLR years ago?

Just thinking it would be a neat trick if your DSLR could recharge its batteries from daylight. I doubt the solar cells could power the thing alone but if they could top up the battery charge while you were having lunch in a cafe with the camera on the table next to you...

I'm looking at the 21mm to partner the 35/2.4 and DA* 50-135mm f2.8. That should give me something equivalent to the '80s film setup of 50mm and 28mm primes with an 80-200mm zoom. Plus it's a tiny lens which will mean I can stuff my camera in a pocket should it rain!

My view would be to go for the 50-200mm or the 55-300mm. The latter is often reported to be better. I made do with an old 80-200mm until I could afford the DA* 50-135mm which is a superb lens.

The megazooms generally lose out in image quality when compared to shorter lenses. They're fine when stopped down a bit but that requires good light or a camera which can handle high ISOs without showing excessive noise.

To give an indication of the sort of people who buy Foresters:

A recent forum thread relating to winter tyres had one person complaining that the all terrains they'd bought were useless. Apparently they self-cleaned too quickly and wouldn't let him drift the car anywhere, he'd even been able to tow other vehicles out.

The next comment was along the lines of "So, they're really good in snow then!"