That sounds a sensible idea. I've tried that on my one and there is nothing untoward like that. Sounds as if something to do with the auto focusing mechanism could have come adrift. Goodness knows how though but who knows what happens to them while they are in the post; could have been dropped or even thrown maybe.

John

The 2500mAh mentioned is the battery capacity whereas the 1.2V is the voltage. Normal alkaline AA's are 1.5V so Ni-MH batteries start off with less voltage. Power is a combination of both these values.

There was some interesting investigation about this on RiceHigh's site including some videos about it. See link and more recently link

The videos do show how to get round this and that your batteries may not be to blame at all. Still worth checking them though with a multimeter as suggested.

John

Good luck with that. Not too long to go.
I was lucky enough to pick up A 28/2.8 in a bargain camera bundle lot off eBay that got looked over by everyone else so that's why I'm not too desperate for an FA (and I've had an M version since the ME/MX days.) Maybe it'll happen again with an FA. I can't understand why there isn't a DA version, equivalent to the 35/2.4 that everyone seemed to be lapping up off Amazon before Christmas (me included!)

John

Sorry, can't help you there. In fact I wouldn't mind one myself if the price was right! If you're really desperate there are several listed on eBay right now.

John

The shutter speed looks to have been 1/30 sec and given that the K110D doesn't have image stabilisation and strong winds were a-blowing I suspect it was camera shake. The 35mm lens version would be less susceptible to camera shake and it would be interesting to see it.

As John commented above, the colour balance looks very odd. I see from the EXIF data you have the camera's white balance set to manual. That means you would need to reset it yourself for each scene. Normally it is best to leave it on auto unless the scene warrants something different. Even then if it isn't quite right you can always rebalance it afterwards in your Elements 7. Auto normally sorts it out OK.

Also you have Contrast, Saturation and Sharpness each set to high (2). I'd experiment to see if you really need those set so high. (I used to find that I did need to do that on my old EOS300D too, but the K100D I replaced it with was just fine with normal settings.)

John

That auction ended back in May last year with the buyer's feedback stating, "Thanks just as Advertised A+++"

John

Wonderful lot. The pigeon looks like he's thinking "hurry up and get on with it!"

Not only are the subjects nicely taken they're all well exposed and lovely and sharp. Well done.

John

The last one on eBay UK was here: link

If the link is broken look for Pentax F SMC 1.7X AF Adapter

John

Well done! It's back (if it ever went away) and at the same price.

John

The middle shot shows that the lens can focus fine. There are times when the AF locks onto the wrong thing. If you are not already doing so, I find that setting the AF to the 'centre of viewfinder' position helps, so in in effect you are then selecting the point of focus yourself which is normally what you want and gives you more control over what's happening, especially when you can see it isn't working right.

As said above, the AF is looking for contrast differences to lock onto and found them somewhere between the bright window and dull interior. It does it mathematically, not aesthetically!

Sometimes I found that when shooting a landscape with a branch in the foreground, the AF would lock onto the branch and not the landscape!

I have gone a step further now and moved he autofocus function to the AF button at the back to prevent the focus going out of focus as you press the shutter. Then there are some scenes that just have to be focused manually, but the centre focus method usually overcomes the need to do this.

You probably wouldn't notice this effect with a point and shoot camera with a small sensor as they have an inherent greater depth of field. But a DSLR gives you more control which is needed when the depth of field of a 50mm lens at f4 is not very wide.

John