I certainly didn't want to suggest that a good photograph is just a matter of correct focus and exposure. It needs both art and craftsmanship.
But, more experiment, more clicks of the shutter, more editing, less High Street processing, and more exposure to the critical gaze of others SHOULD lead to a raising of standards generally. I hope.

I have been shooting digital for a couple of years, albeit with a pretty poor camera by today's standards. The limitations of the camera have held me back from using it as much as I might have done, but I nonetheless think that the following aspects of digital will inevitably lead to a number of changes.

1 The low cost (£zero if you don't print) will lead to greater experimentation.
2 Being able to see the picture immedately after shooting will lead to fewer lost/poor shots.
3 The ease of cropping pictures on computer means that the use of zooms might diminish somewhat. (I'm ditching some zooms in favour of primes or short ratio zooms.)
4 If zooms become less popular, so might auto-focus (prime lenses have larger apertures, and are easier to focus manually).
5 If prime lenses become more popular, quality will improve.
6 The end of "high street" print processing, with all the attendant colour balance problems, will enormously improve the quality of "snaps".
7 The ease with which pictures can be viewed on computer, and published on the web, will increase interest in good images, and increase the amount of time people spend looking at phototgraphs.

I think we are already seeing improvements. Shotgun's excellent images (see his "new gallery" post) are a case in point. If he had shot those on slide or neg we would probably never have seen them, and they probably wouldn't have been so good because fine-tuning would have been much more difficult.

Digital may never be able to replace the magic of seeing a black and white image appear in the tray, but otherwise I can't think of anything to say against it (except the current high price of cameras!).

Very nice.

Two questions.

1 I am intrigued by the use of flash even for quite distant buildings. Do you think it makes a difference, or was the information with the picture wrong.

2 What lenses were you using?

THe Minolta wa obviously using a non-standard cord. Any flash that connects via the hotshoe or has a standard x-sync plug will work.

It's infuriating when manufacturers limit the usefulness of their products by using proprietary connections. However, the vast majority of flashguns are able to use the hotshoe.

I forgot to add that there is no compatibility issue with the K1000. It has both a hotshoe and an X-sync socket, but offers no flash features other than triggering the flash. This means that virtually any flashgun from virtually any manufacturer will work with it.
As there is no dedication facility, you don't need a flash that is dedicated to a particular camera.
The only feature worth looking for, other than swivelling and bouncing, is "auto" flash, where the flashgun has its own sensor and cuts off the flash when enough light has been produced. This works well enough in many situations, but not all.
Don't pay for features such as TTL because you won't be able to use them.
This would be a reasonable choice, if you act quickly:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2979648805&category...
You may well get it for around £15.00.

This is the Pentax-buyer's bible:

http://www.bdimitrov.de/kmp/

There are often Pentax (and other) flashes for sale on eBay.

Use clear neg sheets (bit bigger than A4) for all negs and unmounted slides.

Devise a coding system that makes sense to you, and then keep a record in a spreadsheet or database prog of all the codes, with additional info (film type/location/date, etc) and textual comments where appropriate. If you devise a sensible code the prgram will be able to very quickly find items fitting any selection criteria you may specify.

The last two digits of the code should be the neg number, so your photos can be stored in packets on which you will simply write the first part of the code.

In due course get a digital camera to which you can attach a slide copier, and copy all negs/slides onto digital so you can view them quickly on computer without having to squint at all the negs. Don't try to use a scanner for this - if you've got lots of pictures you will be dead before you finish. I know, I've tried.

For image viewing and simple (but fast) editing, get Irfanview. If you have to use Photoshop you are no longer a photographer but a digital image manipulator. Nothing wrong with that, but they ARE different things. You can of course be both, but personally I prefer to take pictures. Each to his own.

You chaps do realise you are responding to a three year-old thread, do you?

The P30, which had no cable release socket, was replaced in 1988 by the P30T which DID have a cable release socket.

I am not convinced that there was a late version of the P30 in 1987 with such a socket.

G

Here you are:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=706&item=297930...

I agree it looks like a standard manual release, but the book of words says the CR30 (which also looks like a standard manual release) won't work, so this raises doubts.
Best thing is take the camera to a shop. They'll have a standard release and can try it there and then.