Nice looking lens! I don't actually have a Pentax 67 but I do find myself regularly crawling over the Hartblei site and drooling at the K-mount versions (especially the 35/2.8 ). Never seen one in silver though so I'd say you've got a pretty rare beast there!

I like the spider ready to pounce - great capture

Another vote for a square sensor from me please! I always liked the square format and you could allow the user to select other ratios if required (obviously at a lower resolution).

The focus chart should be used with the lens wide open. My K10D had a backfocus problem and these are my "before & after" shots of the chart:

Before

[IMG]http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd37/hefty1969/IMGP5284.jpg[/IMG]

After

[IMG]http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd37/hefty1969/IMGP5312.jpg[/IMG]

As you can see in the first shot, despite the autofocus (and my eyes) confirming the thick black line was in focus the camera was actually focussing on a point around 14mm behind it (you can measure this by looking at the mid-point between where the image comes into focus and where it fades out again).

The second shot was taken after I'd calibrated the camera and shows the sort of image that you want to find - the black line perfectly central to the area in focus.

Try the test with several lenses and under different lighting conditions, all of them at their widest. Use a remote to trigger the camera if you have one and use the 2 second timer to give you mirror lock - eliminate all chance of shake basically.

If all your lenses display a similar pattern (mine did!) then it's safe to calibrate the camera (we can point you towards directions if it comes to that). If your lenses have different characteristics then at least you'll have a clear indication of how much compensation you need to apply to a wayward lens to bring it into line.

Good luck anyway

Excellent set of photos (maybe a few too many for one thread but you'll have got that message by now) - I was particularly drawn to the red-eyed tree frogs, love the colouring!

Well the rumours are that Pentax will be showing a KxxxxD to sit below the K200D - something along the lines of the Olympus e420 would be my guess but we'll have to wait and see.

If you do go the all-Nikon route then I'd imagine the D700 / 105 VR Macro / R1 Flash would be an incredibly sweet macro outfit. We're talking a big heavy body and lens combo there though, especially with the guns hanging off the end of it! I'd find that particular outfit very tempting but out of my price range and I'd really miss the Limiteds.

I always like to run them for a full 7 days because different people go on eBay at different times - with a full week you have an outside chance of catching the Sunday Evening Sorters, the Wednesday Afternoon Skivers, the Friday Morning Rummagers, the... well, you get the idea.

I never use the 5 day option because if I ran an auction from (for example) Thursday to Monday then I'd always be wondering if there was a bigger bidder out there who only browses eBay on a Tuesday or Wednesday.

At the other end, when I've sold cars on there in the past I've used 10 day listings and started them on a Friday to catch two lots of weekend browsers - seems to work quite nicely!

That's much better!

Don't be suprised if you get few (if any) bids until near the end of the auctions - I find people tend to watch until it's nearly over and then all the action takes place in the last hour or so before the end. I see no reason why these shouldn't fetch fairly good prices though so fingers crossed.

Hi Anna, I'd probably add the following to your listings:

For the camera stick a line in the description explaining what lens is included, otherwise you'll just get lots of people asking you to confirm.

If it's not too late to change the headings then on the 135 lens add the word "Pentax" to the front and the words "M42" & "screw mount" to the end - you can probably lose the word "interchangeable" to make room. This will provide you with a better spread of key words for when people make searches of listings.

Similarly, with the Sigma listing I'd replace "1:8" with "f8", drop the "f=" from the front of 500mm, drop the word "and" and use the space you've just freed up to add the words "M42" and/or "Pentax". Same reasons as above, these are the terms people are more likely to search for.

I hope you get a good price for them all anyway, good luck!

I have different cameras for different occassions. I have a cupboard full of 35mm/110/MF cameras that never get used but aren't worth enough to bother selling (although some sometimes get given away) and 5* cameras that actually do get used on a regular basis.

Most used are the K10D/MX duo. I find the ability to swap lenses between them (and the pocketability of the MX body) means they get much more of a run-out than if I owned digital and 35mm SLRs from different manufacturers as I don't think I could justify building up two sets of lenses, let alone carry two sets around with me in the field. As you still own a good K-mount film body and several K-mount lenses I'd suggest you either bite the bullet and buy a K20D or sell the lot and go for a 100% Nikon set-up. Nikon make very good cameras (both film and digital) and very good lenses, however, starting again from (near) scratch is unlikely to be cheap!

I'm not a Pentax loyalist but I do think there are some gems in the Pentax line up that suit me down to the ground - I include the MX, the K10D (and by extension the K20D) and the FA Limiteds in this group. If Nikon has products that better suit your needs then switch - life's too short not to!


*The other 3 are: Contax TVS Digital (digital compact), Leica Minilux (35mm compact) and Rolleicord III (medium format TLR).