The 24-90 that is, it was toast, the filter was smashed to bits and all the insides came loose. Fortunately it was insured and I got a new one. One thing I did learn from that was, never attempt to change lenses when walking through a small French village at 2am when you've had FAR too much to drink at a friends party. Put the FA50 on before you leave the house you know you'll need it's low light performance at some point under the street light.

I'd consider the two new DA" lenses 16-50 F2.8 and 50-135 F2.8 , they're expensive but optically very good and between them cover the range you'd probably need. Most importantly however they can get a bit wet without any fuss and as the K20D is weather sealed you'd have the ideal combination ! There's also a new DA* 60-250 F4 coming out soon so you might want that instead of the 50-135 if you need more reach.

I had the A version about 18 months ago, it was absolutely mint. I couldn't fine any decent use for it so I sold it on ebay, I only got about £100 I was gutted. This was before the K10 came out and lens prices were pretty poor. I also had am A series 28mm F2 which I'd bought at the same time, at least that went for £200. Kept the M version though.

Hi any chance you could you wait until mine has gone so as not to split the market. I only put it up on Sunday and if they see more than one the prices might go down !

I didn't list it here as it seemed a bit rude to post another Sigma 400mm F5.6 when you allready had one up for sale. I've got an old K 300mm F4 up too but I didn't think anyone would be interested, under the user name of buggerdefano, yes really. Sometimes I think I should think of the effect of a name before using it but I guess you never learn.

It's a real shame for me as I actually live in Chelmsford and thought it was going to be the "Pro Center" too. Well at least I know now. I expect that explains why they asked me if Pentax actually made a 1.2 X eyepiece magnifier when I asked for one on Saturday and they couldn't find it in their catalog. Don't even attempt to ask for a Pentax cleaning kit.

Lakeside NO WAY MAN which is a shame as I would like to go to Ikea at least once every 5 years but the thought of going to Lakeside puts me off.

The Photozone site www.photozone.de doesn't give the DFA 100 a particularly sparkling review either, looks pretty ordinary. The Tamron which is also tested on the Pentax K10D gets a better review as does the old FA100. Both the Tamron and old Pentax lens are more consistent from wide open with their quality hardly varying. It doesn't test the Sigma on Pentax but it does well on other cameras.

I have the old Pentax FA100 and it's pretty decent. Built like a tank so very heavy but it's the best built lens I've ever owned. Optical quality is fine although the contrast doesn't seem quite as sparky as I'd like for a Pentax lens. Strangley I find that the M series lenses have better colour, contrast and purple fringing characteristics than the FA lenses. I don't use it much as I tend to use the 50mm version instead as it's more handy.

One word of warning, I did buy the old version Tamron 90mm it was auto focus but not the digital version, the colour cast and purple fringing were appallingly worse than any other lens I've ever seen truly horrible so I wouldn't get a 2nd hand one unless you can try it.

I have a Sigma 400mm F5.6 autofocus. The good thing is the speed of autofocus which is the fastest of any lens I have, probably due to the internal focusing, fast even though I have a DS. I use it for my sons football so you can get a close up at the other end of the football pitch. I don't use it for anything else however so most of the time it's in its box. The quality isn't what I'd expect from a Pentax lens regarding colour, contrast and resolution. Mind you colour and contrast are easily improved digitally. Resolution isn't great wide open but is much better down a stop at F8. This is the non APO version thought I've heard there's not much difference quality wise. Has a nice tripod collar.

I also have the old SMC Pentax 300mm F4 manual focus lens which is better than the Sigma regarding colour and contrast but it's manual focus only and has no A setting so manual exposure too. Better for static subjects than the Sigma but not as good for moving subjects. Mind you the F4 aperture is pretty good for the equivalent of a 450mm lens. Never use it though as I just don't do wildlife or motor sports.

I've often wanted to sell one but could never decide which so I haven't done so. I was going to sell one one ebay but never seem to get round to it. Ideally I'd swap one for an FA20 but that's never going to happen.

They're each designed that way. The Pentax is for those that want the fish-eye effect but the Sigma is a normal wide angle zoom ( though it does seem to exhibit a wee bit of distortion at the extreme edges.

I always use RAW and haven't noticed any on my DS. I bought the DS the month ot came out so it's now over 3 years old so it's not doing too bad.

The internal battery has however died so every time I changed batteries I have to reset the clock which is a pain. Does anyone know how to replace it ?

Well one went on ebay last week in the same condition for about £395 in the UK and that included a mint FA24-90 so £200-300 for the body is probably about right.