Can somebody provide a summary in English?

All I can say is that we have two of these lenses (50-200mm) and also the 12-24mm and they all deliver excellent results. It will no doubt be possssible to get a bad one, but that applies to everything, Leica included.

As for GC, we will all need to read it and draw our own conclusions. What he says in some things does seem at variance with the received wisdom.

The new AP arrived on time today, thank goodness the Postal Strikes seem to be calming down or over.

A very interesting review of the Pentax and Samsung 12-24mm and 50-200mm lenses, very complimentary and with some fascinating comments.

We here seem to think the lenses are a Tokina/Pentax design. Geoffrey Crawley thinks they are a Schneider design.

GC reports the coatings are of different colours, but give virtually identical transmission qualities. The Schneider allows slightly more transmission, which he puts down to Schneider coatings being applied.

The distortion figures for the 12-24mm are astounding - virtually zero at the mid-point of the zoom.

The chromatic abberation curves are also amazing - the RGB curves are pretty much identical at most focal lengths.

Whilst some of GC's assumptions seem very much at odds with what is generally believed, the lens measurements made reveal two very high quality optics with no difference in performance from the Pentax or the Schneider versions, for obvious reasons.

Very interesting indeed - well worth buying a copy of AP to read it.

Portmeirion is a fantastic place for photography.

It seems to have its own micro-climate as well, so even a visit in the depths of winter can results in a gorgeous day's photography.

That'll do fine.

I use the Interfit Studio Flash Transmitter - same thing, but it might be worth checking out the Jessops price for that.

Jessops also have some fairly basic but inexpensive studio flash kits that will certainly do the job. They aren't powerful flash units, but work for a small studio.

Infra Red Trigger, works like a dream.

In the studio, it's much simpler than all that info exchange.

Fire flashes and measure using flashmeter. F11 or whatever it is. Set on camera. Take pictures. In those circumstances there's no need for all the gizmos, so it really I suppose depends on what the photographer is doing and how.

I doubt that there is much that can be done without sending it for a warranty repair.

I'm not sure that I personally would bother as I never use the inbuilt flash anyway. I'd be weighing up the inconvenience of being without the camera.

However, if it needs doing then quickly whilst it's within warranty would seem to be a good idea.

Nos 3 and 5 are particularly strong. Nice work.

No 1 I find rather soft.

It looks like repeating the shoot with your new model could reult in some more interesting images.

The lens will be totally compatible with your K100D body as long as you leave the aperture ring set ot "A".

Any Pentax lens with an "A" setting will also be fully useable.

Other Pentax lenses with no A setting are also useable, but with some restrictions.

Hope that clears it up!