Great collection - as always. I'm puzzzled by your comment about difficulty in focussing with live view. Why use live view with a K5? I would simply rock backwards and forwards as if shooting a macro. With that manual lens you could also use catch in focus.

The tree surgeons set about thinning an enormous oak tree that lives next to a public footpath near the house. It took three of them most of the day! It gave the K3-ii and a DA 55 - 300 something to do that was more challenging than usual. I think they coped quite well considering it was straight into the light with stark contrast everywhere. I was quite pleased to see how well the purple fringing was controlled. (The Meyer Optik 300, for example can't handle it at all).

First off the fellow in the tree climbed right to the top and secured his safety lines



Then he did endless acrobatics to get to the very extremes of its branches









Evven walking on fresh air at times



Before hauling himself right back to the top to retrieve his ropes

Is there any material difference between the earlier black bodied ones and these grey ones?

I realise that the 'focus' is on primes here but the 35 -70 surely deserves a place? It's more often on than off my K5

You don't need any debate about its merits - it's simply a very good lens, like its manual predecessor.
(Gets a dustbin lid and ducks for cover)

I'm very happy that this thread was ressurected - I too missed it (probably because I wasn't a member then?) I often wonder at Giulio finding the time to view almost every image and having seen this collection of his work I shall value his encouragement even more.

I'm guessing:
The camera normally knows the overall exposure time by calculating it up front and it can then divide the entire exposure by 4.
With Bulb, it hasn't a clue how long you are going to be standing there and so, cannot make that calculation?

I've just looked at mine. The hole is stepped (as already mentioned) and there is no way you could even get a cover in there with the 1/2mm depth available. And the battery cover is too small anyway -- I just tried it.

One thing no one seems to have mentioned when talking about all this expensive and fancy glass is the questsion of auto focus. It's a pesky nuisance, especially when you want the focus point exactly "there" to optimise the DoF, for example. Manuals are much better and you can use catch in focus and muck about all you want with live view (if the subject isn't about to run away).

Right - butchered lenses.
One ' A' series 50mm f 1.7 lens - unscrew vanity ring on front, unscrew front element; unscrew rear element = no glass but a fully working, camera controlled iris that acts as an extension tube as well !
Put it on the camera
Screw the reversing ring onto the fliter thread
One FA 35 - 80mm zoom. Screw that backwards onto the reversing ring. Set its aperture manually at wide open; set the focus to infinity. (you don't need either of them because the A50 will be operating both focus and aperture.
Stick it on a tripod, get right up close and be amazed. Here is the image my avatar came from ....

*ist users -- it does have a green button !

I have always bemoaned the lack of a 'green button' on the *ist series which precludes the use of M and K series lenses since the camera cannot control the aperture in the same way as an A series lens. I must have read every article and posting in existence to try to find a workaround for it. Maybe it was a good thing because it introduced me to the world of really old (M42) glass and started my LBA
Imagine my amazement at seeing a throwaway comment on the US site that spoke of the 'handy green button where your right thumb naturally rests" There is only one such and it is marked 'AE-L'. Page 142 of the manual talks about all sorts of obscure uses for locking the exposure for a limited period and I had forgotten all about it. So it seems have many other searchers for a 'green button'.
It is the blessed green button but it hadn't gained that name at the time they wrote that convoluted entry in the manual .... DUH !