Why not put it on Classifieds here if it's in exceptional condition? You might not get a fortune for it, but it might at least find a home where it will be used.

Insured shipping is the answer.

But to be fair I have made successful claims for lost packages from Royal Mail. I know in theory they only pay out if they lose it in the UK, but they can't prove they didn't and they do pay.

Simply hold a Pentax.

Very sensible indeed, it's so easy for the fun to diasappear by making things too complicated and too serious. You'll get the pictures as well, because you'll be enjoying what you're doing and not agonisng over what the bext purchase should be!

As we only use the central area of a full frame lens on our Pentax DSLRs, then we are using the area of the lens's coverage where the corrections are best and the quality is highest. Thus much of the fall off that we find at the edge of a lens is removed.

Fair enough, but it's not the whole story, because digital sensors work best when lenses have a "telecentric" design - that is, the rays of light exit the lens parallel and not obliquely. Digital lenses are designed in this way and can provide superior performance to film lenses, which are not.

Having said that, a superior film lens (say SMC Pentax-FA 100mm f2.8 Macro, for example) will give better results than the kit lens, but that's because the matter of cost comes into it as well.

To display properly, images in the forum need to be at most 800 pixels wide.

If there is a consistent over-exposure, then applying some exposure compensation will do the trick.

It's a new arrangement, so maybe they haven't included it in their advertising until they have everything up and running for guarantee repairs.

I have used them for some other servicing and they were quick and efficient.

Fair question, I think some may be wary of sending overseas, but in fact the process of doing so is painless enough.

Most of the more expensive items I sell on eBay do in fact go overseas.

Yves, it's a good point. It's more efficient to have two cameras the same.