Hi Chris and welcome to the forum.

It seems you've learnt a valuable lesson regarding third party M42 adapters; namely steer clear! I have three adapters, one genuine Pentax which is as smooth as silk and two third party ones which, well, aren't! With the latter two I've removed the small piece of metal that locks onto the camera mount and left them permanently attached to lenses; by drilling small holes in the base of the lenses (to align with the camera's locking pin) I then use them as I would K-mount glass.

Still, at least you didn't have to send your camera back to get the ring removed - you wouldn't have been the first if you did!

Apart from *not* buying a hood (see my reply on the other thread) the M version is a 49mm thread...

The M135/3.5 and the A135/2.8 both have built-in telescopic hoods that work quite well so I wouldn't bother buying one for it.

I have a mix of lenses designed in the film and digital eras and most of my best shots (on digital) have been using film-era lenses. I don't tend to give a second thought as to whether a lens is "designed for digital" or not as it seems to make no difference whatsoever in the real world - a good lens is a good lens whenever it was made.

Of course, marketeers would like you to think differently because it's in their interests to make sure you keep buying new glass - the words snake oil spring to mind...

Go into the "Custom" menu of the K10D and set "Use of Aperture Ring" to "Permitted".

Now you can use the aperture ring to shoot with, however, there are a few handling points to note:

1) In manual mode you meter by pressing the green button after setting the aperture on the lens.

2) In Av mode the lens will always be wide open (f/1.7).

3) No other modes will work properly.

4) The aperture value will always show in the viewfinder (and EXIF data) as "F--". This is because there's no electrical connection between camera and lens so the camera won't know what aperture value you've set.

5) When you switch the camera on it will ask you to confrm the focal length of the lens; scroll to "50" and press the OK button. Once you've done this once the camera will remember the last setting used so you can just ignore the prompt in future (unless you buy more MF lenses and change between them regularly obviously). This is for the shake reduction.

6) Enjoy your lens! Chinon 50's are usually capable of very good results.

Welcome to the forum!

The DA*16-50 would be an excellent choice as a starter lens but they don't come up used very often - expect to pay around £400 if they do. You can get a new one with two years' warranty for £450 from SRS so it'd probably be worth the extra just in case it needed to be returned for any reason.

If your budget doesn't run to that then the DA18-55 would make for an excellent stand in while you save a bit.

[IMG]http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd37/hefty1969/competition%20stuff/IMGP5676.jpg[/IMG]

Taken today.

K10D | Zeiss Flektogon 35mm | f/11 | 15 secs | ISO100

Yeah, I really should get into gear and buy a 31 soon too...

For me the 43 is the perfect indoor lens so don't let the weather put you off - get snapping round the house

But you haven't bought the matching 77 yet...

...or place your palm flat over the front and twist - it evens up the pressure across the entire hood.