Lenses need a Pentax Microfibre Cloth.

The outside of the camera and lens gets dusted/wiped with either a blower brush (for nooks and crannies) or a well washed clean cotton handkerchief (the older and softer the better).

Flowers. Nothing better than an overcast day for flowers - it avoids all those harsh shadows and blown out areas.

Add a bit of light rain and the effect is brilliant.

No, not at all, quite the opposite in fact. We're just commenting on the different ways people do things. All of them are correct. If it works for you, then you're using the right method.

That's very interesting as I tend to shoot under disco lights using manual focus. No split screen either...

I suppose it just goes to show that we're all different and do things in very different ways.

As long as we get the end result it doesn't really matter!

The thing that's rarely mentioned is our eyes.

It may well be that many people are no longer used to seeing through a viewfinder. I know I've handed cameras to people before now and they've talken a look and said "I can't see through that" before rejecting it and passing it back.

When I look through a SLR viewfinder I can see if it's in focus or not. Pressing the shutter release half way makes a lens snap into focus, and I look at the image rather than the green hexagon. In fact, as I think more about it, I never look for the green hexagon.

Do people generally find it difficult to see that the lens is in sharp focus?

Perhaps "may" would have been a better word?

This is where the Japanese wiped the floor with the German camera industry.

Well into the 1960s some German SLRs still had non-instant return mirrors, selenium meters, not even fully focusing screens.

To explain the last point, the Vogtlander Bessamatic, for example, had the most brilliant viewfinder ever, but it's mostly an aerial image so you can't focus anywhere excpet a small ground glass ring at the centre.

For the Asahiflex you can get Leica adapters to use Leica lenses on the cameras. And of course M42 adapters to use the Asahiflex lenses on the Pentax cameras.

Perhaps I should say "you could get" as they may be hard to find these days.

I would suggest starting the lenses at a modest price and just letting them fly...Pentax lenses have been doing very well for quite a while.

A photo of the lens and a good description are essential though.

I think you may be a victim of the very useful Pentax Quick Shift system. What this does is, after you have locked on with AF, you can adjust the focusing manually to fine tune it. The shutter will release when you continue from the half press to the full press, but the AF system will now show as out of focus.

This is perhaps what is happening when your shutter releases despite being "OOF"

To AF again you need to lift your finger from the shutter release and then half press again. The camera will refocus, but you can add your manual sdjustment any time you like.

This facility is incredibly useful under some circumstances.

That's the downside of the Internet - everyone can be an expert, whether they are or not. It's unfortunate that a lot of people may be very misled by misinformation.