Very nice indeed!

Now get yourself over to cameraleather.com and get some nice contrasting panel inserts - Cobalt would look stunning against the black.

What you describe isn't a million miles away from a Leica M9 (except it's a SLR rather than a rangefinder) and that costs around £5000 body only. We know Leica enthusiasts have money to burn, but how many people would realistically pay that for a Pentax with fewer features than a modern camera phone, let alone a Canon 1Ds / Nikon D3?

It's a nice enough dream, but I couldn't see it ever recovering its development costs to be honest.

If you're doing landscape work on a tripod at ISO100 then I'd stick with the K10D - I still think the CCD sensor looks better at base ISO than the later CMOS-sensored cameras do. I also happen to think the later cameras (K20D, K-7, K-x) look better at higher (200+) ISO values though.

You said yourself that you've been pleased with your results so far, so treat yourself to a new lens instead.

Nope, but it's eagerly awaited...

I went to a camera fair on Sunday where I'd usually find quite a bit of 645 stuff - this time there was nothing. Not a single lens between all the dealers present! I asked a few of them and they all said there'd been a surge of interest in 645 lenses and that they'd essentially been cleared out of stock. I think Pentax may end shifting more of these than they predicted.

I'd sell them all except the 500mm - if you already have the other focal lengths covered by lenses you prefer using then they're unlikely to find their way back to your camera bag. With the 500 though, if you sell it you can almost guarantee a situation will arise shortly after where you'll think "I wish I had a 500mm lens for this..."

That's the sort of thing I'd look to speedgraphic for initially, maybe eBay too.

Don't worry Gwyn, I'm sure we'll keep it all out in the open.

Well if anyone has any suggestions for a date and a venue then we may as well put them in this thread. I'd be quite happy to go to Stowe again as it's such a picturesque venue, but equally I'd be happy to go somewhere new. What've you got in MK that's worth a day out?

As for dates, Sundays work best for me and I know the same holds true for Danny (Unlocker) and Fiona (Utopia Poppy) who I'm sure would both come along.

There isn't a regular group as such, but we did have a meeting up at Stowe last year. There are a few of us from around these parts on the forum, might be time to have another get together in the not-too-distant future?

The Seagull finders you find on eBay for around £25 are just fine (some are branded Seagull, some are plain).

I've had mine a couple of years now and have no complaints other than the plastic adapter that slips over the viewfinder eyepiece feels a little flimsy. I expected mine to break after a couple of mountings but actually it's proved to be a lot more resiliant than it looks.

The finder itself is quite a rugged piece of kit which works very well, has a nice clear and corrected view and a useful magnification facility. For the money you can't really go far wrong...