You can use Av mode and M mode. If you set any other aut mode (such as Tv) you will get Av regardless.

It's not a convenient way to work IMHO, but it does work. Unfortunately the exposure may not be accurate either.

Personally I stick to A series or later lenses.

There have been transparent cameras as well. And cameras cut in half.

It seems a lot of kit to go with a Pentax Optio P70.....

No, not paranoid Richard. Modern lenses are far more complex than they were in the manual focus days, so failures of various components will occur.

In contrast to say an M series lens that is unlikely to suffer anything more than a sticky diaphragm, the modern lens may not be as collectable in another 40 years because of its complexity and the inability to provide electronic parts.

On the other hand in another 40 years I might not be particularly concerned about that.

It's been added to the "wish list" of items wanted for future upgrades.

That is indeed well and truly displaced!

The street price of the current 50mm F1.4 AF lenses is not so far adrift from the actual Pentax street price.

There are a couple of plastic-construction f1.8 lenses from Canon and Nikon, but these are not made in the same way.

On the face of these images David, but if we were making A3 exhibition prints then the difference would be very obvious.

Perhaps the birds in Japan swim a lot?

This is difficult because the images are different and the resolution on screen is limited, but I'm going to agree with smc.

The first from the K20D and the second from the *istDS. Both are excellent anyway, as pointed out.