Thats definately caused by grit in the film transport system scratching the surface of the negative

I was under the impression that SR was not suitable for macro work? have I misread something somewhere or has Mongoose just proven it wrong?
As for the "trap" focus, I used this method quite often with my old K mount stuff on my istD and my film bodies, and not just for macro.

There is no way (that I have found) to do this with an AF lens tho'

And you still joined

You'll be half mad within the year

Then you'll really fit in

I got the banned message too, and emailed for assistance earlier today, back up and running now tho'

I also got my brother to check on his PC (using my login) and he got access, so looks like the blocking spam thingy is the culprit.

Bit of a relief tho' I thought I'd managed to put my foot in it and annoy one of you "(£&$("£"$_"_!)

quick edit....I couldnt get on even as a guest either, despite clearing my cookies, temp. int. file,s and my history

I bought the Bigma with my K10D (told the wife it would save me money not having the kit lens ) and so far so good (finds wood to touch).

Dont know if the K10D motor is more powerfull or not, if it is then why would Pentax do this when the camera is designed to accept the new HSM lenses?

I'm with Matt

When I bought my first Pentax (the MZ7) I thought I wouldn't need it, how wrong I was, I kept wishing I'd kept my OM30, I was so frustrated I bought the MZ5n as a second body but the MZ7 soon became that
Matts hit the nail on the head, DOF preview is invaluable in macro work, its also handy when you have very near forground elements in landscape photography.

Depth of Field is a "zone" of what will be in focus depending on the aperture that is set.
A small aperture (high number) will increase DOF while a bigger aperture (small number) will reduce it.

Example;

If you focus on a subject ten feet away and use an aperture of say f4 then not all of the scene will be in focus, much of the near forground and pretty much most of the background will be out of focus, however if you "stop the lens down" ie use a smaller aperture, say f16, then the amount of the scene that will be in focus will increase. this allows you to use the aperture for creative effect, ie throwing backgrounds out of focus for portraits or ensuring everything is sharp for landscapes.

DOF also applies to the human eye, have you ever noticed how things seem much sharper when you squint your eyes?

Well from all those replys it would seem I am a bit of an old dinosaur I am quite content with the thumbnail folders provided by good old winXP

Have you also considered contacting actual photographers? ie wedding, fashion, studio etc etc.
I think you would learn a lot more about photography from one of these than working in retail.

Just look in the yellow pages and write to as many as possible saying who you are and what you want to do.

Didnt you see this earlier thread?

https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4282

No doubt this is the man to ask