When it's cold outside (like now) take a plastic bag with you and let that get as cold as the camera does; when you return home put the camera in the bag and seal it up, then leave the camera somewhere cool so it can gradually come back to room temperature - hopefully you'll minimise condensation and any that does form will do so on the outside of the plastic bag rather than the camera/lens.

Going from indoors to outdoors shouldn't be a problem tbh.

We've got the same weather and I must admit I wouldn't want to be biking in it today...

Maybe your K100D had a minor front/back focus problem - it does happen from time-to-time

I'd get the one from Ffordes for £75 - I think the one on eBay has already gone past the point where it's offering good value for money. Ffordes state that the one they have has a little internal dust (nothing to worry about - they nearly all do) but is otherwise in good condition, and they tend to be accurate in their descriptions as a rule.

Hello and welcome to the forum

Hi JCP and welcome to the forum

Good luck!

There's plenty of the white stuff out here in the countryside too so I hope you weren't commuting on your bike today?

I'm quite glad my original plan didn't work - got some nice shots in the snow earlier today. Holding off posting one until I've seen what opportunities tomorrow's snow brings though, might be even better!

You K10D doesn't support TTL metering, only P-TTL. This means if you want the camera to control the exposure you must use a P-TTL flash.

You can also use a flash with an "auto" mode (which the Jessops doesn't have either but the Pentax 360 does) whereby the flash itself calculates the amount of light required.

Finally you can use a manual flash - this would be the only option available to you if using the Jessops flash with the K10D and is OK if lighting conditions are fairly constant as set-up will probably involve a bit of trial and error on both the camera and the flash.

In summary, the Jessops flash will only work as a fully manual gun with your camera and to be honest you could get a good quality second hand Pentax manual gun on eBay for half the price and which will probably be better built and / or more powerful. If you want automation you need a modern Pentax / Metz / Sigma gun with P-TTL of which I'd personally go for either Pentax or Metz (ducks down and prepares to be pelted by angry Sigma fans).

The focus distance is always the distance from the subject to the sensor, so the distance to the end of the lens will be considerably less than this.

For what it's worth, I already have a 1:1 macro (the D-FA100) and I'm thinking of adding the DA35 to my armoury in addition - it looks a great lens and I think a lot more useful than the longer macros for still life, copy stand and product photography. Plus being a "normal" focal length makes for a good walk-around everyday lens too.

Go back and read the link in Dan's post (above) again and then just go buy one!