In the context of what I mentioned in the original post, photographic knowledge is knowing what effect aperture and shutter speed have on your image and how this relates to specific purposes, such as producing a good portrait. The vision is the portrait, the technical knowledge is needed to produce the vision and that was what I was asking if we still need, because a button on the camera suggests it can do it for us.

It has the same DOF as any other lens when set to a particular aperture, but at f1.2 this will indeed be very shallow.

If this version does not have an "A" setting on the aperture ring then your camera will only fire at open aperture, so it will be f1.2 all the time. In this case, you need to set the aperture use (custom menu) as "permitted" and then use the stop down method of metering to make sure the lens stops down when you take the picture.

You can use Av and M modes with this method. If you do a search on the forum you will find lots of threads covering the method in more detail.

We were at Haworth over the weekend and the light in the rain was fantastic for candid shots. No nasty shadows to contend with and lots of nice relections from wet surfaces. We used our K20D camera quite happily and even non-weatherproofed lenses, although we protected the lenses as best we could.

Weather sealing opens up new possibilities and any complexity will take care of itself for me. Otherwise the logic is that we'd better not use anything in case it breaks and that can't be right.

I was just thinking, a dangerous thing I know, that the need for many photographers to actually know about photography is reducung day by day as we watch.

Let's take a portrait. We could set a low ISO, a wide aperture, soften the contrast, all the things that help a portrait, or we could push the "Portrait" button and the camera will do all these things for us.

Do we need to know what it's doing (unless we design cameras) and do we lose anything by not knowing? Does it matter or is the final stunning portrait the only thing that does?

The problem is not all eBay, but very much sellers who are dishonest and sometimes buyers who want to dodge the system as well and get bargains. The trouble is, when they do that they are open to fraud and there's no protection. Yes, going through eBay costs more, but they are selling a service.

If I receive an "off eBay" offer to buy or to sell, or a request to sell at a BIN price when I haven't offered one, the answer is always no.

The priciple of Caveat Emptor ("Let the buyer beware") is a good one to bear in mind, even with all of today's consumer protection.

Chris from SRS already answered this on another thread, offering to honour guarantees for items transferred between forum members, providing that the original SRS receipt can be produced if warranty work is required.

The short answer is, just pick up the phone and talk to Chris.

Prices are currently likely to rise as new stocks are bought in. It won't get any better, so my advice is to move quickly.

No 2 puts the scene in context better. Without the cardboard we don't know that the couple are not just a couple of mates waiting for the guy in the background to get his cash so they can go to the pub.

The message is much clearer in No 2. However, as a photograph, No 1 is stronger, which is probably what causes your indecision.

My "rule of thumb" would be that if a repair exceeds 50% of the new price then in needs very careful consideration. I'd probably scrap that one and buy a new K200D or Km.

The exception of course would be something rare which might be worth repairing beyond its value, but that doesn't really come into it with the K200D.

I don't rate Ricoh lenses particularly highly, probably on a par with Fujinon or Mamiya 35mm format lenses, satisfactory but not exceptional.