I did notice he's had 4 negatives in the last month, but then he's also had 132 positives in the same timescale...

And yes Clarky, I had a nagging feeling it may be some sort of DVD user manual or similar, but if that's the case I'll refuse delivery and get my payment refunded - after all it's not what he's advertised so I'd be quite within my rights to do so.

After a good night's sleep I still reckon it was worth a gamble - I've put more money on horses with a far slimmer chance of seeing any return on my investment, and if this "horse" loses I can claim my stake back.

Normally I'd steer clear of these things but for just £16.22 including p&p and insurance I figured it had to be worth a gamble to be honest.

I've paid via PayPal and had an automated response telling me that the flash will be shipped within 72 hours and I should expect it to arrive within 16 working days - so sometime in early / mid January.

I'll let you all know if it ever actually materialises or whether it becomes a PayPal dispute somewhere down the line...

The Pentax MX is similar in size to a Leica M series and is relatively quiet due to its rubberised silk shutter (like a Leica, other Pentax cameras have metal shutters). There is still some mirror noise to contend with but it's reasonably well damped.

As John and Mike have said, there has not been a Pentax rangefinder and the only leaf shutters I know of are the ones for the (much larger) 67 series medium format cameras.

A Pentax MX teamed with the Pentax FA43 Limited will give you Leica-like results for a fraction of the price.

[IMG]http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd37/hefty1969/IMGP1556.jpg[/IMG]

I think for a 100+ year old technology the level of noise looks pretty much spot-on, if anything it may even be a little too clean.

The Tamron 70-300 isn't a bad lens, in fact it's probably above average from a purely optical point of view and it's tolerably well put together. But from the pictures I've seen posted here and elsewhere on the web I generally prefer the look of the Pentax 50-200 - hence I really want to test them side-by-side with the loser going on eBay...

The only French lens maker I could name from the top of my head is Angenieux - not them was it? They certainly make/made very expensive lenses!

Good point well made

If you take the Tamron for 30 quid even if you don't like it you could double your money selling it on eBay. I've already got the Tamron so I'll be holding out for the 50-200 if I get a similar message from Jessops.

Hello Peter, welcome to the forum.

Nice work John - I've not seen any Autochrome slides but the picture has quite a convincing "olde-worlde" feel to it. Would the colours have been quite so saturated though? I'm thinking in particular of the red dress and the green foliage on the left. Maybe the technology then was better than I give it credit for!