Sue and myself share lenses to some extent. We try to keep the selection fairly compact, but it is something like this:

SMC Pentax-DA 10-17mm
SMC Pentax-DA 12-24mm
SMC Pentax-DA 16-45mm (me)
SMC Pentax-DA 18-55mm (Sue)
SMC Pentax-FA 24-90mm (for film)
SMC Pentax-FAJ 28-80mm (for film)
SMC Pentax-FA 50mm f1.4
SMC Pentax-DA 50-200mm
SMC Pentax-FAJ 75-300mm
SMC Pentax-FA 100mm Macro

For various older film cameras we have also retained a few manual focus lenses, but the list varies all the time as various projects come and go.

We actually routinely carry only a couple of lenses, adding others as needed.

Thanks Peter for a thorough and very prompt appraisal.

A worthy winner from McBrian, who is now invited to set the next task!

"Alien Red"

This is a budget zoom, probably of quite modest performance.

The filters: Softon will be soft focus for portraits, etc. FL-W is for "white" fluorescent light, cross is presumably a cross-screen to give cross-shaped flare effects from lights at night and the Polariser will of course darken blue skies and reduce reflections from water.

Hope that helps!

I would definitely shoot in JPEG and have simplest lighting set up possible.

And a very capable assitant.

I think there's a feeling that suppliers are charging over the odds, but the reality is that margins can be very tight and UK buyers are getting a fantastic deal. Not on everything, granted, but DSLRs in particular are very good value. There are some incredible deals in AP this week (out on Tuesday, tomorrow that is, for non-subscribers) on both Pentax and Samsung.

As regards SRS, if you phone Chris he won't charge users of this forum any carriage in the UK at least, but you'll need to talk to him.

There are a small number of very much above-average UK dealers and I think it's well worth supporting them.

I think those prices seem high. I paid £155 for the 50mm and £40 for the Pentax battery both here in the UK.

Richard, glad you were amused.

It all depends how you look at it. I think that compared to paying £209.95 for a Pentax MX with 50mm f1.7 lens in lets say 1985 (I haven't checked the exact date for that price) then paying £479 for a K10D with 18-55mm lens now is amazingly cheap. From a proper, local dealer with a good level of service and some after-sales interest.

So really what gets charged in some other market doesn't worry me too much. In any event, by the time we have imported from a cheaper market and added shipping, import duty, VAT and handling costs then the difference is not so great anyway.

When something goes wrong it is also much easier if the supplier was in the UK.

Of course, what is right for me might well not be right for others.

I don't hesitate to buy from anywhere in the world, but only if the item in not available in the UK. I often import CDs for example, but only because I have obscure tastes!

As regards cameras, the payment of Import Duty, VAT and the handling charge for the carrier to collect them adds a fair amount. Coupled to this, UK prices are very good anyway and if anything goes wrong I would like to be able to return the item easily.

So I would say buying from the USA is not for routine purchasing, but if you need to then don'y forget to factor in the extra costs.

There will be no difference in optical quality between the two, apart from any normal variation between samples because of manufacturing tolerances.

However, the M version has no electrical contacts on the mount so will have to be used manually in stop-down mode. This is less convenient and the SMC Pentax-A 50mm f1.4 would be a more user-friendly manual focus lens.

Then all you need to decide is whether or not you want an autofocus lens.