Hi All,

I have a Pentax 645 FA 80-160/4.5 lens for sale, it is no longer needed as I've replaced it with a P67 90-180 for commonality with my P67. It comes with front & rear caps but no hood or case, I hope to get some photos of it up shortly.

The Bad: It has a couple of very small spots towards the rear element that look like they may be fungus - 'Y' shaped lines surrounded by a small circle of haze. I can't get a photo of these as they're so small and only noticeable when viewing from an acute angle. I bought the lens from Japan via Ebay and didn't notice them initially, I'd be very surprised if they affected IQ.

The Good: It works fine on my 645D, obviously the AF is screwdrive and slower/noisier/clunkier than SDM, the AF/MF collar operates correctly and everything else works. There's some slight scuffing on the barrel and apart from the issue above, there are no significant optical issues (there's slight dust as may be expected).

£200 with RMSD to the UK, payment via Bank Transfer or Paypal (gift).

Thanks for looking, let me know if you have any questions.

John.

Bump

I signed up to Flickr pro last year, it seems to have improved since then but I only use it for sharing. They don't support raw formats which restricts using it for backup.

I keep the original SD cards, a HDD copy and paid for cloud storage. I have no interest in my own HDD farm or the aggro of maintaining them (been there, done that at work).

Also available here: link

The benefit of proper cloud storage is it doesn't cost anything to set it up, it costs a few cents per Gb per month on AWS and they handle everything else. Self hosted hard disc farms are rapidly becoming a thing of the past.

Hi All, unless stated these are all in good condition, no fungus or haze, no significant marks, snappy apertures but slight dust due to age - supplied with generic front & rear caps.

Prices include postage to the UK, payment by Paypal (gift) or Bank Transfer.

Super-Tak 35/3.5: Good condition: £60

Pentax SMC-A 28/2.8: The focus ring may be slightly stiffer than it should be, otherwise good condition: £40 posted to the UK.

Pentax SMC-A 50/1.7: Good condition: £45 posted to the UK.

Miranda KA 24/2.8: This was originally a P/Kr mount lens with the 'Ricoh' pin, this has been removed by unscrewing the mount leaving a small hole where it lived. In good condition: £45

Tamron Adaptall (not ADII) 28/2.8 - No mount: This the original Adaptall series of lenses (not the later Adaptall-II) but the ADII mounts fit and work, good condition: £20

Lenses with issues:
Super-Tak 28/3.5 (49mm filter thread version) with significant fungus/haze: £20

Super-Tak 55/2 which won't stop down: £20

Pentax FA28-80/3.5-4.7 PZ lens: Tatty, broken zoom switch, slight mark on the front element. The basic PZ operation works fine on K-5 & K-1 bodies but is largely pointless. An aperture ring makes it a cheap standard zoom option for a film camera: £15

Thanks for looking, PM me if interested.

John.

Backing up computer data is a huge topic and a very complex one. Hard disks aren't safe, they do and will fail, SDDs are too new to tell, as with anything there will be more reliable disks and less reliable ones. Multiple disks reduce the risk but are a pain to maintain. The most reliable option today is paid for cloud* storage (which does all the messy stuff for you), this does introduce potential security & privacy issues though. Cloud storage also needs good internet bandwidth if you're uploading lots of big files (i.e. large TIFF files).

My experience with SanDisk SD cards back to 2012 (and earlier for CF cards) is that I haven't had a failure. I recently moved contents into the cloud from SD cards untouched since 2012 without issues. I format them in camera, use them until almost full (deleting a few images in between), then put them away (the less you handle them the safer they are). They don't like any bending loads or damage to the contacts.

The OP of the Pf link at the top seems to be using the camera as a card reader & TV display, putting the cards into multiple camera types. If this is routine (as it sounds), this handling is likely to damage the cards or card slots in the camera. Apart from damage to the cards, there may also be file format issues between different cameras (I wouldn't expect a K-5 to open a K-3 image). As mentioned, always lock the card before reading it in a different card reader. Some PC systems try to write their own data as soon as it goes in - which a camera may not like.

* Note: By cloud storage I mean a generic computer data cloud store, not one of the photo sharing platforms that limit size or file types. I don't mean Adobe CC although that may suit your workflow.

There are very few applications that a 300/2.8 is necessary for with a DSLR. A 300/4 is much lighter, compact and cheaper and only gives one stop away (which can be compensated for by upping the ISO). It's not like the film days where ISO 400 was the fastest you could go (colour) and get reasonable results.

Apparently the DA* 300/4 is FF compatible - if so that would be my choice.

I often leave genuine caps at home, taking only generic ones if I think I might lose them. I once got a genuine M stlye cap stuck on a no-brand filter on my M80-200, it took a bit of twisting to get it off.

Wilkinson's seem to have moved into the old 'Camera Solutions' shop in Chester. Camera Solutions were a Pentax dealer but they weren't very competitive on price (I guess their volumes weren't enough), they also had a lot of used film gear in the window (far more than they could probably sell on the high street).

Wilkinson's stopped selling Pentax a while ago, they moved stock out of some shops earlier than others.