I tend to work mostly in aperture priority (Av) mode as I tend to shoot 99% static subjects - people with different shooting styles will vary accordingly.

My routine is something along the lines of: Set ISO (100 outdoors in daylight, 400 indoors), set aperture for desired effect (depth of field), check shutter speed fast enough to hand-hold (and adjust ISO upwards if not until it is), take shot, check histogram, adjust exposure compensation +/- and repeat until satisfied.

If I'm using either a tripod or flash then I tend to stick to ISO 100 as shutter speed is *generally* irrelevant in these circumstances.

If I'm shooting fast moving objects then I'd tend to switch to Shutter Priority (Tv) and work through a similar rota but with the first part reversed: Set ISO, set shutter to required speed (to stop or blur action accordingly), check lens fast enough to accomodate (adjust ISO upwards if need be), take shot and hope for the best 'cos you rarely get a second chance with fast-movers!

Hi shuggy and welcome to the forum

Hello Mr Mellow - feel free to join in, the more opinions the merrier!

The 77 is indeed rather special, but stopped down to f8 and smaller I'd doubt you'd see much (if any) difference between it, the DA70 or the DA*50-135. My 77 tends to get used mainly between f2-f2.8 where it positively sparkles.

There you go, that just saved you a few hundred quid!

I can't get wireless to work consistently (or at all) when it's *very* bright outside - not usually a problem in the UK though!

Sorry to hear it Don - I've had cat problems myself for years but I can't seem to find any way of getting the message through that they're not welcome in the garden. The supersoaker is the most effective but only if you can actually catch them in the act and most of my "visitors" come at night when I'm not looking.

The Zenit "kit" lens (Helios 44 - various incarnations) is a capable performer and a good portrait length on a DSLR - it's a Zeiss Biotar copy and is very, very sharp with lovely bokeh. If you get one from the KMZ factory then the chances are it was built with original (pre war) Zeiss machinery too.

The Jupiter-9 (85/f2) and Helios 40 (85/1.5) are also very highly regarded if you have them.

The other thing worth pointing out is that it's best to use a *genuine* Pentax M42-K adaptor (about £18 from SRS etc) as some of the cheap eBay ones either don't fit flush (so you lose infinity focus) or they get stuck on the camera meaning a trip down to Pentax and a repair bill larger than just buying the genuine one in the first place. YMMV.

Hello and welcome to Pentax User Anotherpentaxuser from another Pentax user.

Hi Peter, welcome aboard

Just the one entry per competition - keeps everything fair