There are two 24-90s on Ebay at the moment.
G

How very true.

G

Try posting to the trouble-shooting forum.

G

Congratulations.

Do get hold of some image editing software, though. DSLR images need editing to get the best out of them (by which I mean adjusting contrast, saturation, sharpness, etc., rather than actually altering the image).

Nigg Bay looks a bit chilly at this time of year.

George

Rumours have it that the D2 will come out in the Autumn next year, although another lower-spec body will be coming out in the Spring.

All the Pentax DSLRs take stunning pictures, and although the D2 will be better in a number of areas it will also almost certainly have a rather higher price.

In your place I'd go for a DL or DS2 now.

G

It seems most likely that this is the element separation problem for which these lenses are infamous.

As far as I know, there is nothing to be done. It is unlikely that you will be able to clean off the old adhesive fully and then glue the elements back in perfect alignment. (If you do manage to, you could start a business.)

These are reputedly excellent lenses. It is a shame this happens to them. Funnily enough, the 28-70 f2.8 also has a fatal flaw, but mechanical rather than optical.

In Pentax, this zoom range is to be avoided.

G

Andy, Sherlock Holmes would have admired your deductive powers.

And, John, you don't know how right you are. Having been in most of the day, I went out for a short while, and there was the dreaded yellow card waiting for me on my return.

When you feel a need to both laugh and cry, tap "Parceline problem" into Google. Allow a month to read all the responses.

G

If you do buy from Germany (Technikdirekt.de), be warned that they use Britain's worst courier company for the UK part of the delivery route.

The culprit is Parceline, and their aim in life is to try to deliver when you are not at home. You will return to find a yellow card inviting you to pay extra to arrange a delivery at a convenient time.

No way! you cry, but you will then find it almost impossible to discover where their depot is (they don't mention it on the yellow card, and ask you to ring a useless and expensive number manned by a machine that tells you nothing useful).

Their website won't tell you where the depot is unless you ask to be allowed to collect the parcel. Since you don't know where the depot is, you may feel disinclined to ask to collect it, in case the depot is on the island of Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides.

But be of good cheer. When you tell them you wish to collect, they reluctantly then divulge where the depot is, and in my case it wasn't too far away (I live on the Isle of Skye). Not really, just joking.

You then spend ages trying to find the depot, because it isn't called Parceline, it's called something else. But persevere, because at this stage the object is to beat the bastards at their own game, and you'll find it eventually.

In my case, the lens took two days to reach North London from Germany, five days for Parceline to leave a yellow card (outside my front door - where anybody could have picked it up), and a further three days (because of an intervening weekend) before I could collect it.

But it's a lovely lens.

G

Two points:

1 Some independent lenses - notably some by Sigma - have exposure and other problems that go beyond a failure to work in program mode. However, I haven't heard of any problems of this nature with Tokina.

2 The various Pentax 28mm 1:2.8 lenses (except for the FA) are regarded as not very special, so it is not totally impossible that the Tokina might be better optically. If so, it would be very much the exception to the Riley rule (always buy Pentax).

G

It's an indispensable accessory for those who photograph in deserts. You can still see the LCD under the burning desert sun, and it protects it from sand-storms.

But in a desert, the need for beer is even greater than it is elsewhere.

So, wherever I am, I shall be following Don's advice.

G