The B+W is a standard skylight filter - still in their catalogue today. I've actually got a silver one that came with my FA43 but it's the "wrong" silver and looks even odder than having a black filter on there unfortunately.

As for Pentax / Takumar caps I'm afraid not. On the rare occassions I get genuine Pentax caps in I keep them to one side and try to match them up with Pentax lenses that I'm selling - I never have enough to go round though unfortunately. The ones I've got left over are mostly generic but there are a few Canon, Minolta, Yashica, etc mixed in there too.

If I do find a 49mm Tak cap I'll let you know though - I'm always picking up odd bundles so who knows what may lurk inside?

I've no problem with that as long as the seller states explicity in the listing that they only post on Saturdays (or whenever). If they make no mention of when they post parcels then I expect it to be in the post on the working day following my payment, otherwise the listing is misleading IMHO and I'll mark them down on dispatch time.

As for 1st v 2nd class I always send second class but I also make sure this is clearly shown in my listings. Past experience has shown me that there's rarely any difference in when a package actually arrives if sent via recorded delivery (usually 2 days whether you pay for first or not) so I don't give people the choice.

I don't think people expect miracles but they do expect honesty. If you can't make it to the PO until Saturday fair enough, at least if I know that I can withold any payment to you until Friday - everybody's happy.

Nice collection Clarky! I've got a similar boxful for the same reasons as you but only three of mine are genuine Pentax. I've even got the very same solitary B+W filter that you have!

Really must get round to listing them all on eBay at some point along with all the odd hoods, caps, etc...

Hello Smiff and welcome to the forum

Hi and welcome to the forum

No longer required

Hello Andy and welcome to the forum

I don't tend to use filters for protection but if I did I'd stick with the high quality ones: Pentax (hard to find), B+W (very expensive) and Hoya (just about right).

If you put a cheap filter in front of your lens you'll degrade image quality - almost like permanently shooting through a window.

I've never tried but I'd be (a) willing to give it a go and (b) willing to bet it would work.

Unfortunately, I'm also willing to bet that this will end up fetching more than an unmodified version - making it uneconomical to try.

It's the Canada Balsam that was used to cement elements together that they really like getting their teeth into. They don't like the new synthetic stuff which is why you hardly ever see a modern lens with fungus.

That's what I like to hear!