Our local windmill (and regular muse for me over the years) has had a bit of a tidy up so I took advantage of the nice weather today to go get a few shots; ended up with nearly 100 of them so after much deliberation I've picked out three for your c&c...




K10D / DA12-24 @ 16mm / f8 / 1-350sec / ISO100




K10D / DA12-24 @ 12mm / f8 / 1-750sec / ISO100




K10D / FA77 / f8 / 1-180sec / ISO100

Excellent shots Clarky - I think #3 (moth) is my favourite but they're all very good. The bees are becoming more frequent in my garden now but I've not yet got a good shot of one, they just move too fast for my glacial reflexes...

Sure am!

8-12 inches is about as close as I'd want to get to one of them; in fact, I don't think anyone makes a macro lens long enough that will get me taking 1:1's of wasps! Nice shot though

Colour for me too!

Great quizzical look in #3, really nice capture.

I think £1000 sounds like a reasonable price, if you do it though I'm sure it goes without saying that you must get paid up-front.

If it were me I think I'd be loathe to sell them at any price, but you can console yourself that the 77 seems to be as good as everyone says it is, I'm a recent owner myself.

Your point is a valid one George, however, I probably should have mentioned that I "collect" battery free cameras and was after something that could take my Pentax glass whilst simultaneously adding to my 60-odd mechanical bodies.

I don't have any Pentax stuff at the moment (except the K10D, my Auto 110 set and a compact 90 Zoom) and I like taking them apart, cleaning them up and putting them together again (jigsaw style) as much as I like taking photos with them. I can't seem to go to a car boot sale these days without buying an Olympus Trip (currently own 7), Rollei B35 (2) or even a Kodak Brownie (3). Most of them I end up selling or giving away once they're working & looking like new again; others (like my Rollei TLR and my Leica IIIf) I can't imagine ever letting go of.

So while I'm sure the Super A is a better body it just doesn't tickle my fancy in the same way the MX does...

That's a tough decision you've got there and not one I'd want to make! Whatever you decide though, I wish you the very best of luck.

The Super A requires batteries to operate though and I really wanted a camera that offered fully mechanical operation. I know the ME Super offers a halfway-house approach which I'd probably find acceptable but the MX really does seem ideal on paper. I think John's now swayed me firmly back into its camp!