I think this is probably enough on this subject, so I'm locking this thread.

Another new thread is being deleted to avoid it descending into undesrireable territiory.

Let's keep to pentax and photography and not personalities.

Than you, George, now I understand.

I really don't see the advantage of using the grip at all. The batteries last for a very long time and it would be a simple matter to put a freshly charged one in before a day's heavy shooting is started. 500 shots later it would take seconds to change.

Also, why add a heavy grip to an already moderately heavy camera?

Good luck, hope it works out OK.

Without casting any aspersions on this particular seller, I also avoid sellers who can't string a sentence together. Who can't spell simple words. Who don't offer a decent image of the products they offer. Who claim not to know anything about what they are selling, in effect suggesting "I may be a mug and not realise what I have here, come and take advantage of that."

The only problem I've ever had was from a person who wanted a partial refund but refused to say what the problem was and wouldn't discuss things. He preferred to leave negative feedback rather than resolve whatever needed rsolving. A mystery to this day, but there's no defence against it.

Thus we have the good and bad with eBay, but in general it's staggeringly useful to buyers and sellers alike.

What are your conclusions?

Although what you say has some truth in it, you would have to test your lens at all apertures, focal lengths, distances....you might prefer to take some real pictures instead!

Life's too short, but the newspaper test will give a reasonable indication of resolution and contrast and being a fairly large object will not be ultra-close anyway.

At least it is something, and it is repeatable, as all experiments should be.

Try photographing a sheet of newspaper and see how well the lenses reproduce the text. The difference at the edges should be very obvious, expecially as wider apertures.

On a tripod and with identical focal length settings.....

The FA version has 5 elements in 5 groups, quite unlike the previous lenses that neede 7 elements. This was made possible by the use of an aspherical element.

The word impressive simply meant I was impressed by the qualities of the images. The distortion is the whole point with a fish-eye lens - if it wasn't there I would want my money back.

Correctly used, for impact, the lens gives the tower enormous "weight" and "power" in the composition, adding drama to a scene that could have been very mundane. Our distorted view reminds me of the filming technique say of "The Avengers" at its 1960s best.

The second shot exploits the fact that horizons straight through the centre of a fish-eye will be straight. The photographer here may not have realised fully what this meant and it is not 100% straight. Then the forground looks odd so we are led up a visual path that suggests something is not quite right. Thus the image becomes more interesting as we linger on it looking for an answer.

Hopefully that expands a little on impressive.