It's the same in your average camer Club Competition. How could the judge award 10 marks for this and only 9 marks for that?

I wouldn't worry too much about these scores or, very often, the conclusions reached in the text. They are often illogical. Although they are better than the old 1970s PP "blob" system. The more blobs the better....

Almost all Pentax lenses, screw fit or bayonet fit, are compatible.

The screw thread (with Adapter K), K series and M series lenses have no A setting on the aperture rings so are used in stop down mode, having activated the appropriate custom function that enables use of the aperture ring.

The A series manual focus lenses will work perfectly, although obviously with manual focus only.

The autofocus lenses are all fine in every respect.

That leaves you with a lot of lenses to choose from. Check out the various previous threads in the lenses section.

The Vivitar is not in the same league as the Pentax, and is much heavier and more unwieldy. Also, some of these old designs may not be ideal for your digital SLR.

You are correct that the 50-200mm will not suit your K1000, but it is superb on the DSLRs.

Fair point, but why would we buy a Minolta battery to put in a Pentax camera? A slightly strange thing to do, especially if the spec is not the same? Although batteries may fit, they may not fit exactly, they may have different ratings, it may or may not be significant.

On the other hand, there would not seem to be much argument against putting a Samsung GX10 battery in a Pentax K10D, or vice-versa should we wish to.

But when they leak all over the camera interior at least the warranty will still be valid.

On the other hand, there is an expectation that they come from a known source and hence probably won't leak. Possibly might, but probably won't.

There are some pretty dire products out there and I for one do not intend them to ruin my camera.

However, we all can make the choice as we see fit. That's freedom...

All this agonising always amazes me - the cost of the proper battery (£40 each when I bought 2) over the life of the camera is virtually nothing.

Just think of all the money we saved not having to buy film...

Well spotted!

The replacement batteries quoted so far have not even been the same specification, so they don't meet the design criteria in any event. They may or may not be good enough, but that is not something that I personally am prepared to put into the hands of third party sources of supply.

It's a choice we are all free to make.

If you are happy with "own brand" products that's fine. Some are excellent, some are not, and sometimes the sourcing of those which are good can suddenly change. My point is that knowing which are which is not easy for the consumer and is not something I can afford to play with.

So far one battery charge has lasted me an entire day's shooting a wedding plus several weeks more casual use since. Another battery type might have been as good at a much lower price, but the likelihood is that it wouldn't have been. I can't re-stage a wedding because the batteries have run out....

That's true, but the purchaser has no way of judging these things, any more than the patient knows whether or not they have a good doctor or dentist.

Branding provides a benchmark of the status and cost/quality expectation of a product. If I buy a Rolls Royce my expectation will be very high, and this will be borne out or otherwise by my and other people's actual experiences.

My expectation of my Pentax branded K10D batteries is very high, and so far they have exceeded expectation very comfortably.

Actually it's not about peace of mind, a state no doubt we will eventually all fall into, but not for a while yet!

No, it's about perceived quality and the pleasure of using things that are well crafted, fit properly, perform well, etc. For example, the design of the Rollei compact battery/card compartment I looked at recently was very similar to my Pentax A20. Surprisingly, the Rollei was very badly made, the battery did not fit properly without fiddling about and the battery itself was a blank white label that was coming unstuck. Zero pleasure to be had from using it.

The Pentax A20, on the other hand, has everything fitting perfectly and clicking nicely into place and is as smooth as silk. A high level of satisfaction.

I have watched a friend removing a microdrive from his Canon compact with a pair of scissors because it didn't fit properly....

My customers also fall into different categories. Some want to use branded materials and are prepared to pay the price, others want "own-brand" alternatives at the lowest possible cost, and of course every point in between those extremes is to be found.

There is nothing intrinsically wrong in either or all approaches - we all are free to do as we want. My experience tells me that the cheaper routes often end up the most expensive in the long run, so that's why I stick to the proper branded products.