I love the F 35-70. It's a cracking lens that everyone ought to try - and they go for under £20 on E bay regularly. One that did surprise me is the Samsung D Zenon 50-200 (Pentax DA 50-200 clone) which is said to be better than its parent. I bought it from Simonmac a week or so ago. This is the very first shot I took with it on my K5. No flash, natural light and handheld. It's a fairly severe crop, rotated about 150 degrees as the bee was hanging upside down !




This is clearly not a macro lens but one can't complain about what it can do!

Birmingham or Coventry are both accessible by rail and motorway. Both are photogenic. Bits of both are being torn down and rebuilt ! Both have good pubs.
Talking of Chris - what does Watford have to offer? (honest question).
Derek - you can do Birmingham by air from Belfast, Cork and Dublin.

There are two or three SFX and SFXn on E bay most weeks. You ought to be able to get a cheap one for parts?

My K3ii is a baby by comparison at 7662 and the only time I've had a shutter fright was when using a cable remote with the camera set to 'continuous burst'. 1st click, off it went, 2nd click, then frantic clicks and presses of shutter release failed to stop it ! I had to turn it off manually at the switch. I have no desire to buy a K1 because the K3 is a super camera. (ignore the video - I have no use for it anyway).

Funny how things go: the bloke in 6 spoils it (a bit) yet the people in 7 make it shine. It's a gorgeous location and you show it off wonderfully well.

I think we got there in the end

It IS sold - assuming you received the bank transfer. I hope it hasn't disappeared into the ether.
(Funny that I was harping on about a real Schneider lens recently, and now I'm after one that simply sports the name!)

Sod the card or the phone it won't fit, it's the kudos that counts - and you'll get lots of that when it hits the shelves!

These are lovely portraits. (I simply cannot penetrate the black art of flash)

Don't forget the 'old' glass ....
The Pentax-F 35-70 is excellent and the F70-210 is very good, albeit a bit on the long side. The F-zoom 28-80 delivers too even if some complain about its 'violent' auto focus! I don't rate the F 35-135, but I might have a duff copy of that. My all-time holiday standby is the Tamron A03 28-200. They are expensive and like hens' teeth but very very good.