Flippin' 'eck lad. You've scared her off already.

The sunglasses are quite arresting and, as has been commented, the gap helps enormously. The remainder make a great record of what was clearly a well spent day off.

She must be a marvelous partner to let you faff around on her birthday to the extent of acquiring those lovely pictures (and all those that went into the bin). My vote is also for the first one.

It's true you don't get much d.o.f. but that's one reason I like it. The same holds with a macro lens with which you focus more or less accurately and then sway yourself fore and aft to find the bit you like. (I think I've only ever used burst mode once - it scared the pants off me!). Burst or not, you caught this one very well.

Great set throughout but that 1st B&W is superb.

I installed it OK and got a shortcut on the desktop (Win11). Clicking it produced nothing except for a (very brief) rotating circle thingie. I uninstalled it. Anybody got any suggestions?

My only worry is that we might end up fighting a rearguard action against the Canon brigade since they have a good adapter for our lenses and they snap them up all the time. It's just more fashionable to be seen with a humping great heavy Canon camera - no one pays any attention to what is on the front of them. It's that status symbol that matters.

That's the right one ! There is a knack to getting it in and a knack to getting it out - which is helped if you possess an intact and un bitten right thumbnail! (Biters have to improvise with some sort of metal tool).

Thank you all for some very nice comments and I'm really pleased that my efforts have prompted some to consider getting one of these venerable lenses. A hood can be useful too - I use one from a Takumar f3.5 135mm.

This time of year sees the sunshine appearing less harsh and the change from summer's bright colours to a more muted maturity. It is perfect for one of my favourite lenses, a very early Super Takumar f1.8, 55mm. It's so early that it is about three from the beginning on PentaxForum's listings of serial numbers and owners! It has a very close focus and can therefore isolate a subject and additionally produce lovely soft bokeh everywhere else. Here is what a K1 did with it ....

1 Camomile daisies. Commonly seen around the edges of arable crops.



2 Red clover. Another once common wildflower that has been all but eradicated with selective herbicides. This farmer deliberately sows it with other bee-friendly flowers around the edges of his fields.



3 The poor start to this year resulted in soggy ground for a long time, making planting difficult and therefore many resorted to fast growing barley varieties that could be sown late. This particular field is one of the last with a crop still on it in my area.



4 And finally, some weeds: The wind is pulling streamers of parachute type seeds off this spiny milkthistle.



5 Another common weed is Willowherb that is all but finished now except for solitary flowers on the ends of multi-branched stems and surrounded by long pods that have released most of their downy seeds.



This lens is commonly for sale on Ebay at very modest prices and I happily commend it to all M42 users.
Your comments are welcomed.