There's several incarnations of that. the latest being the DFA28-105 which came out at about the same time as the 24-70. Others go back to film camera lenses which aren't too bad but the DFA is fine. Another, if you have one or come across one is the FA24-90, the last zoom of the film era before the istD came out. While plastic construction, optically it's pretty good.

Thanks, good selection there! If you're not keen on the 24-70 have you considered the 28-105? If nothing else it's a bit cheaper!

Hi. Look forward to hearing of your experiences and seeing some of your photos. Which lenses do you like for your K-1?

Is it because the image has been converted to just 256 levels of grey? Elements has several methods of converting to mono, try a different one avoiding the 8 bit conversion.
Or if not that perhaps you've picked up a sonic signal from an alien spacecraft.

Hi and welcome to the forum. If you've just purchased a lens and it proves to be faulty I can only think of one thing to do with it... return it the the supplier for replacement or refund. Are you able to try it on another compatible body just to be sure?
With the older 55-300's some used to find a focussing issue if the lens had a filter attached. Your description sounds much worse than being slightly off so doubt it is that. I wonder if the package it came in got dropped or violently shaken in transit to you?

Surely the built in flash IS the onboard flash? I presume you meant an external flash. If doing so, make sure it it has a low enough voltage across the contacts not to blow the main camera board (requires a volt meter to do this) though Pentax ones will be fine.

If he's a mate perhaps he'll do it privately for you still?
Or buy a developing tank!
Is having someone provide a disc of scanned images really that different to taking them on digital in the first place?

I have my cameras set up to create daily folders. These are named, say 100_0708. I copy these whole folders from the SD card over into an annual folder on the hard drive and rename the transferred folder to the date the photos were take, i.e. 20170708 for today, then add the camera and an aide memoir to that, e.g. 20170708 MX-1 London Zoo.
So everything gets filed in date order and I can see which camera the folders relate to. I may have several folders for the same date if more than one camera was used.
I've reset the default filenames in camera to also indicate which camera was used, so these appear as something like MX1_1101.JPG rather than IMGP1101.JPG
To view them the images I use either Windows Explorer, or sometimes FastPictureViewer which can handle raw files correctly or ThumbsPlus which is handy for keeping thumbnails of images on CDs including wmf files.
When I scan old negs and slides I incorporate them into the same system using similar folder names as close to when they were taken as my grey matter permits. If only I'd done as my pop said and written the dates and locations on them before I forgot!

If anyone has images backed up to CD, don't keep them there as home written CDs can go bad!

Using the catalogue isn't essential in the use of Elements (unlike with Lightroom.)
Just transfer your photos to an external hard disk and use Windows Explorer to find the photo you want. Double click it and it will open in your program of choice, or right click the photo and select Open with...

If you love the elements catalogue system, just rebuild it at the new location.

Personally I hate the Lightroom/PS style system forcing one to use its catalogue as its really nothing but bloatware duplicating Windows own OS functions.

I use Elements and have a shortcut straight to the editor bypassing the (to me yuccy) catalogue system. I do have Lightroom installed and opening files in that causes it to start importing the whole directory, not what I want at all!

I'd only use the cloud for an off site backup, not the main storage of your files. The site may simply vanish without warning taking all your precious photos with it. BT's cloud backup systems have gone through several incarnations with the older ones no longer accessible.

As to the local hard disk storage, use a second hard drive to create a regular backup up of the main storage disk.

Using CDs/DVDs is also possible of course, but if you use raw files you'll need hundreds of them and some seem to have a relatively short life span before going bad, hence unreadable.

I can offer anyone who wants it a compete K-50 kit with a shutter count of.... 3 ! Still under warranty. Any takers? If so please PM me with your offer. Beside the K-50 it includes the charger, one original Pentax battery, a DAL 18-55, CD and manuals etc. (and the box!) Might cost you less than getting a broken one repaired!