A few months ago my Dad bought a K7, which has been great until yesterday when the front thumbwheel started behaving very oddly. The rear thumbwheel is fine and stops through apertures as expected but the front one jumps all over the place (skips up as well as down when turned the same way!) and won't allow you to select slower speeds. This seems to go for all camera modes.

Any ideas? Or is this a case of needing to use the warranty?

I'm particularly impressed with the internal focus design of the Samyang. This should reduce dust take-up as parts of the lens aren't moving in and out.

I don't have anything as impressive as those flowers, but here's one of my early efforts after unwrapping the lens. Shot at minimum focus distance and then cropped, the model is around 6-7cm long:

[IMG]http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x21/Kingofthemountains/Marklin/IMGP4747.jpg[/IMG]

Model trains actually make surprisingly good lens test subjects thanks to the fine detail and lettering!

I'd still like to see something like a DA 135mm f3.5 priced at a similar level to the DA 35mm f2.4 and with similar image quality. I suspect part of the reason for the 35mm being cheap is that it reused an existing lens design, so little development was needed beyond some testing to make sure it had survived the changes. They must still have the design for the old Pentax-F 135mm which could be updated?

I guess my real wish for a cheap DA 135mm with the same physical dimensions and performance as the old M series lens is not likely to be granted!

I can confirm the Samyang has the PKA mount. It behaves exactly like a Pentax-A lens on a DSLR, you do have to dial the focal length for shake reduction but after that all exposure modes work.

The only snag with the earlier bodies is that they almost all need a CLA now. I have a minty early-type SV and fully functioning square meter with the slight snag that the shutter caps at higher speeds. The shutter design was upgraded on the SP to solve this.

I'll get it seen to when I have a few quid to spare, it's hardly deteriorating on a dry shelf at the moment.

I might be inclined to go for a Spotmatic F, ES or ES II if any of your lenses are SMC or Super-Multi-Coated Takumars. These models have the extra tab for open aperture metering with these lenses. Yes they are more complex but they seem reliable enough.

If you see something with "Electro Spotmatic" then it's a rare predecessor of the ES and worth buying, however if the electronics don't work the chances are that they can't be fixed, as apparently these cameras not only differ from the later models but also from each other - they were more like a mass-produced prototype than a standard product.

I have an original SP which is gorgeous to handle and use but unfortunately the metering is too easily fooled for my tastes. I find the KX much better with similar handling but a more reliable light meter.

AF isn't much of a loss with a lens like this. I asked a similar question before deciding that the 85mm would be more useful to me and apparently thanks to the design you can usually get away with setting the focus to a particular distance then leaving it. Providing you've stopped down a bit then depth of field will step in and ensure that objects from infinity to much closer are in focus.

The 85mm is very easy to focus manually, presumably due to the bright viewfinder and paper-thin depth of field at f1.4. I often find I can get it focused in conditions when the camera's AF system can't cope (you still get the green focus confirmation hexagon with these lenses).

To be honest I don't find f2.4 terribly limiting. With SR you can use lower shutter speeds handheld than you could with film, so low light isn't much of a problem. Likewise the plastic mount isn't noticeable other than in the weight of the lens. Treat it with care (it is a precise piece of optical equipment after all!) and it won't be a problem. Remember that Pentax have a history of making slower wide angle lenses with incredible image quality, like the K 28mm f3.5 which can still show those newfangled zoom things how it's done! The 35/2.4 is definitely in that tradition.

As a walkabout lens it's perfect. Tiny, light, makes a K-m look like a bridge camera so you aren't attracting attention with a huge professional-looking outfit.

I find anything wider than 50mm works perfectly for landscapes. If you want a wider field of view then just get a panorama stitching program like Hugin and feed your shots to it. You can make images as big as you want without any distortion, as opposed to the results from an ultrawide.

If you just want another lens to play with then have a look for a cheap Pentax-M 50mm. The f1.7 is widely regarded as one of the best standard lenses ever made and should you get bored it will hold its value. Even better if it comes with an ME, ME Super or MX attached - buy a couple of rolls of film and have a play with that for a while!

The Samyang lenses are a lot better than the price would suggest. I have their 85mm f1.4 and I'm very happy with it. Said lens has been shown to be very close behind far more expensive ones from established brands in scientific testing.

I will probably try Peak Imaging later in the year when I can stand the financial hit of shooting a couple of rolls of colour 120 film. They offer a negatives + CD service which sounds ideal, and will apparently spend time tweaking your images during processing to get the exposure spot on.