Now I once had a Rolleiflex 2,8GX Helmut Newton Edition and I was quite disappointed with it.

The 2,8F has the most gorgeous soft shutter release that makes slow shutter speeds hand held a doddle. The 2,8GX was really stiff and caused camera movement. Also, the battery compartment did not fit very well.

This was where theoretically superb German engineering was actually a bit shoddy. The 2,8F on the other hand is superb and an as-new one would indeed be a beautiful thing.

We have both lenses and the quality of both is excellent. One of our 50-200mm lenses (we had two) was slightly better than the other, so there may well be some variation.

On balance I tend to carry the 55-300mm as the extra length is quite useful. It's probably the slightly better lens as well.

I've had a thought. If I had unlimited funds I'd have a special edition made of the K20D, specially engraved, in a nice wooden box with a certificate of authenticity...and present one to all my friends.

Pretentious? Moi?

I'd still buy a Pentax K20D because it does what I want it to in the way that I want it to.

The extra money I can then spend on more lenses.

Good point, but it's odd considering that the first firmware update for the *istDS covered problems particularly associated with astrophotography. So Pentax are clearly aware of the field.

Referring to....?

Thanks for mentioning Carl Zeiss, reminds me that they made such converter lenses for the Rolleiflex TLRs. They were good, but huge, heavy and Expensive, Very Expensive.

Dodgy territory on film and probably even worse on digital. I think this route will lead to disappointment.

The K10D/K20D battery is much more convenient. Changing one battery that only inserts one way is much easier that inserting four that have to all be the correct way round.

You will probably never have to change one when out and about, they last so long.

An afterthought, if you move quickly you can still get the £100 cashback.