Sounds OK to me. The camera will expose perfectly in any mode (except M, where the exposure depends on you!) provided the lens is on the A setting.

Keep emailing, several times a day, 'til you get a response.

Every Pentax flash will work fine with your camera.

Each flash will work as it was intended to. The more modern flashes will cost more money, but will give you more functionality.

Ebay is a good place to buy second-hand flashguns, and this is a good source of information on what they will do:

http://www.bdimitrov.de/kmp/flashes/index.html

George

It's not highly regarded.

http://www.mail-archive.com/pentax-discuss@pdml.net">target="blank">http://www.mail-archive.com/pentax-discuss@pdml.net/msg136712.html

Read the replies at the bottom of the page.

George

The fact that some of your shots were OK suggests that the camera is functioning properly, and the focus problems are probably down to you. You're not used to having to focus! Practice will make perfect.

The small mark in the corner is more of a worry. First, take your next film to a different processor. If the mark is still there, it's probably the lens. If it's not, it's the processor or film. I doubt if it's the camera.

Persevere. Photography takes time to master. Many of us haven't got there yet!

The ME Super did not cause as much of a stir as its predecessor, the ME, which came out in 1976. This was tiny compared to other SLR's and quickly became enormously popular. I bought one within a month of their introduction, having bought a K2 when they first appeared a year earlier. The ME had a jewel-like quality compared to the heavy cameras of the time.

The Super was a logical development of the ME, with manual as well as auto exposure, selected by the famous buttons, and faster speeds. I got one of those pretty promptly, too.

To get an idea of how popular the ME & ME Super were, you only have to look at how many are sold each week on Ebay. They have such a good name that they sell for much the same as the Super A, which is a superior camera, built on the same basic body. In fact, the Super A is really an ME Super with shutter priority and TTL flash metering.

For real street cred, you now have to buy the famous 40mm pancake lens, which makes the whole combo not much bigger than a classic III series Leica.

The pancake lenses are invariably sold as "rare", and "much sought after", or "sort after" to quote some Ebay nitwits. This doesn't quite fit in with the fact that they sell at the rate of one a week, though at surprisingly high prices. I suspect that there are actually three lenses that are constantly re-circulated. Once the novelty has worn off, people find that 40mm is very close to 50mm, and that the lenses are difficult to focus because the focus ring is so thin.

Anyway, enjoy the ME Super. It is a classic, and deservedly so.

George

The fact is, that for image quality, especially if you plan to print, you need to go for the highest image size the camera will allow, and (with a decent camera) this will invariably be much more than the monitor's highest resolution, let alone its best.

The solution is to let your viewing software reduce the image to fit the screen resolution. Irfanview does this well, and it's free and highly recommended.

http://www.irfanview.com/

You can also, if you wish, use Irfanview to make smaller copies of your pictures at screen resolution size, for convenience.

George

Any of these will work well, and simply, in auto mode. Just set the flash to auto and the camera speed to X (for flash sync):

http://www.bdimitrov.de/kmp/flashes/non-TTL/index.html

They are often sold on Ebay for around £15 - £20.

George

M lenses only offer manual and aperture-priority operation. However, most people don't find this much of a drawback in practice.

Stan's site draws on the experience of some hyper-critical characters, many of whom use the best lenses Pentax has to offer. In other words, the M lenses are being compared to optics that cost much more, and which are often very hard to find.

In the real world, the M 28mm f2.8 is a fine lens that will give you excellent service. I've no complaints with mine.

As far as I can see, the older the flash, the better it works.

G