It's never as clear-cut as we may think. When older items get sold on eBay then the genuine Pentax lenses go for very good prices and the sought after rarer lenses go for sometimes amazing prices. The independent lenses of the same era go for very little and sometimes don't sell at all.

As regards Pentax and Samsung alternatives, in the more distant future it depends on where the relationship goes. It could be possible that ten years from now it will be difficult to persuade the uninformed buyer that the two are the same.

However, the choice is there now for us to make as we see things and whichever is chosen the results photographically will be excellent.

I think it was just a throwaway comment with no real basis at all. Someone buying a company doesn't suddenly improve the quality of existing products...

The newer lenses have been in planning for a long time, long before Hoya got involved, and have been jointly developed with partners such as Tokina.

I would expect that if anything products would be brought to market more quickly though, because of improved funding.

They look the same to me as well.

I'm not sure what it will take to convince you then that they are all Pentax lenses. The identical construction, apart from cosmetics, the new Vietnam factory, the identical performance, the fact that it ain't no secret...

Anyway, one of the major advantages of keeping to a single range of lenses, such as Pentax, is that the colour across the range should be very consistent. When I first started in photography and bought independent lenses I soon noticed that my 135mm was very annoying because it looked blue, the focusing turned the opposite way and it took different sized filters. Three good reasons to regret buying an independent.

Of course with digital we can easily correct colours, but even so it makes sense if there is consistency up front. It could be a good idea to ditch AWB and use a constant value, perhaps the cloudy setting if you like warm images. It's a matter of what is required.

When I did a studio shoot with a friend I used Pentax's AWB and my images were nice and warm compared to his Fuji and the custom balance he set. Although the neutral colour from the S2 Pro was probably more "correct" it didn't look as attractive, just boring.

Colour used creatively doesn't always need to be accurate.

The 18-55mm is the more useful of the two on DSLRs. It focuses closer, has a greater zoom range and is more compact.

We found little difference in performance but preferred the handling of the 18-55mm.

Probably pushing your luck with a price offer like that

These are actually very rare and staggeringly good lenses, even wide open. eBay prices should break the £100 barrier, although it can be unpredictable.

An 81A filter is very nice for warming up the images. I used to use one almost all the time on colour slide film.

An aperture is a ratio and is the same for all lenses. That's why a light reading of say 1/125 sec at f8 will be the same for any lens fitted.

BTW who did make that f1 you mentioned Ther's a Leica 50mm f1 lens for rangefinder and at one time (1959 I think) there was a Canon 50mm f0.95 for Canon rangefinder.

Very fast lenses are not new.

The fastest Pentax lens is the recently discontinued SMC Pentax-A 50mm f1.2. There was also a previous SMC Pentax version.

Do you use the film cameras at all? The last film image I shot was the last frame I exposed for the Images of England project before it closed.

If you do and it's for critical use then maybe the 77mm could be justified.

Really only you can decide.