better than getting one from JPN....thanks for that, I keep forgetting about them up in Scotland

Just a shame it clashes with the Goodwood Revival - hope that another (convenient) session can be arranged.

Silver items? Would there be an unused FA*80-200 f2.8 by any chance?, he says hopefully knowing the answer will be a fat NO.

Payment made.

Oh it will be used next weekend Mike - it's the Revival and I am off to Cuba in 10 weeks.

Going to send PM

Why do I think that one day you'll have another 100-300f4? As long as I've known you Mike you always have had at least three copies of each lens made for the K-mount

Rumours were going back to the 80's when Minolta and Canon jumped on the AF bandwagon - although Pentax was the pioneer with the ME-F the arrival of the EOS620/650D and Minolta 7000 eclipsed the SFx. Pentax were doomed then (30 years ago) - same when the Z-series was launched, the arrival of digital when the MZ-D was canned only to be followed by a long hiatus to the ridiculously names *ist series. People thought then that Pentax was living on borrowed time. The arrival of the K-series was seen as a bit of a mini-revival but with a few hiccups.

Canon and Nikon have more or less have the market to themselves. Minolta have been squeezed out so Sony have to forge a different path, as did Olympus and Fuji quite successfully. Pentax have done well to maintain a presence, and long may it continue.

Although I have bought my Nikon FX from the big guys (old Jessops and Calumet) the rest of my gear is Cambrian, Park, SRS and Grays. The K-1 came from Cambrian, the grip came from PU.

Mike-P appears to have a K-1 so there is plenty of life in the brand yet

Look at the statistics...

Jessops is in its 2nd incarnation. It died and had to be resurrected.

Pentax might only be a small part of a larger organisation now; it simply refuses to die. Don't forget the DSLR camera market is shrinking and Nikon have struggled lately. But I do believe a lot of the availability issues are down to Pentax/Hoya/Ricoh marketing efforts (or lack of)...

I can vouch for this lens - fantastic for the price.