To be honest, the only places you're likely to find one would be either (a) direct from Pentax themselves or (b) on a second-hand one on eBay or similar. Look for one being sold as spares ideally, as it's usually a fault relating to the lens rather than the screen that causes folks to get shot of them.

I doubt there's anywhere else who could (or would) sell you a new one, sorry.

I think leave the bulb - it's a little distracting but if you cut it out you'd also lose the angled pictures on the left and I think they form a nice frame by leaning in like that. The first shot's lovely!

I love the D-FA100! It is a little noisy (AF-wise) but not considerably more so than any other Pentax lens (and at macro ranges you tend to use MF anyway) and there are times when the lack of a focus limiter can be, er, limiting but overall I find the optical quality to be absolutely first rate. The main advantages are the quick-shift focus and the incredibly light weight for a macro - these features I find make it much easier to use in real-world situations. I've seen some excellent shots taken with the Sigma (and the various Tamron 90 incarnations) but I wouldn't personally swap my D-FA for either of them to be honest.

Because the D-FA is such a featherweight lens it can give the initial impression of being "cheap&cheerful" but once you've used it you'll soon realise it's anything but! I'd put it level with my FA43 Limited in terms of outright IQ and that is no mean feat.

Couple of example shots (one at macro distance, one at near-infinty) - they may not be prize winners but that's more my fault than the lens...

Thanks for the kind words folks!

Clarky: Yes I do tend to get drawn into taking photos at eye level. Actually, I always take some at other angles as well but I nearly always select the eye-contact ones as the "printers". I seem fascinated with insect faces...

As for the flash...

Dan: 10/10! I do have the 360 but if there's enough available light then I'd rather work with that instead (I may have to review that when I start taking shots of things that move at a faster pace though). You were spot on about both the cloud and my head in the reflections!

Very brief sunshine today (about 30 minutes) and the only insect I could find in the garden was this ladybird, probably the same one I photographed last week. This time though I had my tripod to hand and my diffuser (although I didn't need it for these shots). Taken in RAW and converted to JPEG in PPL with no mods whatsoever, not even a little sharpening.




K10D / D-FA100 / f8 / 1-8sec / ISO100




K10D / D-FA100 / f16 / 0.7sec / ISO100

C&C welcome as ever!

Protesters? Aylesbury? What did I miss this week?

Fabulous shot Clarky, the diffuser seems to work a treat!

The sun's attempting to poke its head around the clouds here as I type, so I may see if it brings any bugs out in a bit.

Interesting technique and not one I've used on a lens, similar to putting gels over lights though. Nice effects!

I already own the D-FA 100 Macro and it's fantastic for bug chasing and really shallow depths of field (as well as a great telephoto / portrait lens), however, I'm currently in a state of excitement about the new DA 35 Macro because I want a lens for copy stand work and product shoots that will give me a wider angle and a greater depth of field without having to stop down quite so much - the DA 35 looks like being perfect for this sort of work but I certainly wouldn't sell the 100, they each have their place depending upon the application.

If you're only getting one macro lens then maybe the 50 would be a good compromise - it strikes me as being neither one thing nor t'other though...

Excellent judging Will (no, I didn't use a polariser unfortunately, and yes I think it was about the only day last summer I actually saw sky like this ) and congratulations Tony for a well deserved win.