I always think the P30T is much underrated in design terms. It feels right in the hands, doesn't weigh much, takes up very little room, will work with any lens from an SMC Pentax through to an FA-J and even the full frame DA lenses. Film loading is much the same as on the AF bodies of the era (drag the film leader across to the orange mark, close the back and wind on). Not a bad looking camera either.

I wouldn't mind one, but for a very esoteric and specific reason. As it can be programmed to leave the film leader out I could use it with my Rondinax daylight developing tank.

(I know about the tools to pull the leader back out, but they seem more hassle than my current technique of using something with manual rewind and stopping as soon as you hear the click of the film disengaging from the winder spool).

Ahh, oops, I thought the FA* was still in production! :lol

I am a bit surprised they don't make something like a 90mm f1.4 now though - it'd be roughly equivalent to the classic 135mm on 35mm film.

It's actually three 85/1.4s, although only two are AF.

I find the Samyang dead easy to focus, the depth of field is so narrow and the viewfinder so bright that you can often find focus when the camera's AF struggles and fails to lock on. That said I do struggle when the subject lacks contrast or is poorly lit.

IIRC that AP test drew some comment along the lines of "How come the Nikon won even though in all the scientific tests the Samyang was right behind it at a quarter of the price?"

Well it's clearly terrible. Tell you what, I'll take it off his hands now so he doesn't have to look at it!

Then stick the 55/1.8 on the front and promptly wipe the floor with the images he gets from his Nikons...

Got a Bronica ETRSi, has its roots in the ETR of the 1970s so probably not quite early enough! 120 is an interesting learning curve though - I'm steadily testing every variety of Ilford film as with 15 exposures you can see the results more rapidly.

That tripod does look a bit too flimsy for the camera IMO. My Red Snapper handles the Bronica with 200mm lens and teleconverter well enough, but I wouldn't want to put it on anything smaller!

Back to the topic (rather than discussing camera gear): I like it. I agree with the suggestion that it might work well in B&W or sepia, the only snag is the slight softness/blurring. Then again that could work to your advantage if you tweak the image in an older style.

The 40-80mm is an f2.8-f4, it should be ok though. It does exhibit some barrel distortion but that shouldn't show up too much with a portrait, if anything it may be flattering in rounding angular features.

The 35mm is probably too short but I wouldn't call it a waste. It's usefully faster than the 16-45mm, very sharp, and much smaller and lighter than the zoom. It's a perfect walkabout lens, although I do wish it was closer to 28mm.

I wouldn't mind seeing how it compares to the Samyang 85mm. It will inevitably be better, but I'm intrigued whether it will be 4x as good as well as 4x the price!

I think it has to be considered case by case really. I know of a very small charity which doesn't have paid staff and funnels every donated penny straight into their projects, in their case I'd consider images a donation, just as their entire organisational team donates time and other expenses to keep things running.

However, when dealing with someone like the National Trust who have paid staff and a tidy annual turnover? They can clearly afford a professional, so why give them your work for nothing?

The Red Snapper three section legs/ballhead combo will handle a Bigma and K-m comfortably. Price is around the £100 mark.

You could also look at gimbal heads, but those get expensive very quickly!