I have two 300mm lenses. One cost £9.50, the other £410. Both second-hand.
The £410 was the better buy.
I'm afraid that if you are waiting for a bargain 300mm, you're going to be waiting awhile.

G

£20 is a fraction of the going rate for this. If you have an autofocus body, snap it up.

G

Have a look at the Pentax USA site. The software supplied with some recent Pentax digital cameras won't work with W98, and perhaps also W98SE. In fact I am not sure whether W98 itself supports USB. If it does, it probably doesn't do it very well.

If you have a laptop, you can buy a PCMCIA card which will accept various camera cards. They are not expensive.

George

The simple answer is, Yes.

You can use just about all Pentax 42mm lenses on just about all Pentax 42mm bodies (exception is this lens: Super-Takumar 50mm f/1.4).

You lose open-aperture metering if you use an earlier lens on a body which allows open-aperture metering, such as the SPF or ES(II).

More details here:

http://www.aohc.it/faq2e.htm

The AOHC is a very useful site for screw-mount owners.

George

Have you checked that the firmware upgrade was successful. To do this: switch off the camera, press and hold down the Menu button, and switch on. The firmware version will be displayed.

If that is OK, have you formatted the card? To do this (assuming it is possible while the camera is "stating card error"): Switch on, press the menu button, and select format. Follow the instructions.

If this doesn't work, or can't be done, check the card in another camera. It may be faulty.

If the card is OK, and none of the above work, then I am afraid I can't help you. Perhaps somebody else has some ideas.

George

The main effects of the smaller sensor are:

1 Every lens effectively has it's angle of view reduced, so a 200mm becomes a 300mm, etc. This is great if you always wanted a longer lens, but couldn't afford it, but it's less good news at the other end. Your nice wide 28mm lens becomes a 42mm. Manufacturers are busy designing new super-wide lenses.

2 Lens sharpness becomes more important, because you are having to "enlarge" the captured image more than you would have to if the sensor was the same size as 35mm film.

3 Light fall-off and poor resolution at the edges/corners don't matter so much because you are no longer capturing this part of the image.

4 Some lenses are said to work less well with digital sensors than they do on film. Apparently, sensors respond badly when light hits them at an angle. As a result, many lenses are being re-designed, and the new versions are described as "optimised for digital". Some people think this is being over-hyped in order to sell new lenses.

George

Download the manual from here:

http://www.pentax-manuals.com/manuals/mf/mfmanuals.htm

(And don't forget the password.)

The shutter speed is set by pressing the two little buttons on the right side of the prism housing. However, while you are still learning the camera, use Auto, and set the lens aperture to 8. (This is the scale which goes 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16 etc.)

Good luck

G

Which camera do you have?

Pentax are allegedly going to bring out a DA 50mm 1.4, though when I couldn't say. I also see no great point. A fast DA 35mm would make more sense.

G

Yes, when I said £20 per lens earlier in the thread, I was referring to the manual lenses.

Over £100 for an F 50mm 1.7 is good going. In the States you can get a brand new FA 1.4 for the same money, though you do have to wait for them.

G