If you can get them, Jessops mounting boards are perfect. 20" x 16" in a variety of colours, packs of ten at £13.99. Mount the picture using Scotch Photo Mount (red can) and you won't have any problems. There are also other sizes.

Various local suppliers (art supples) will be able to provide alternative boards. Also, your fellow members will tell you their sources I'm sure.

If you can get the right size the boards won't need cutting (or ask the supplier to do it) but you might want to cut prints to trim off edges. A circular blade cutter is best, and again Jessops have a good one.

Which Camera Club have you joined?

The item is available to Pentax Club members with a 10% discount - see the latest copy of Pentax User magazine.

It is also available from any good camera store, amaybe from stock or maybe to special order, but it is available.

Alternatively, try an eBay search and you might find one for less money.

That's right. Screw the adapter to the lens and then fit into the camera body. Screw lenses can then be removed and fitted as though it were a screw thread body. To remove the adapter press the catch with a pen tip and carefully remove it.

As these are such low cost items I really recommend using the proper Pentax adapter to ensure proper fit.

The Pentax Adapter K will do the trick. I suggest you set the lens on M, open it up to focus and then close it down to the aperture you want to take the picture. Aperture priority will work fine.

The alternative is to set the switch on the lens to A to focus and then switch to M to stop it down, but the prism overhang may make it fiddly to do that.

Well you could print the manual from the PDF, but I'm not sure I'd want to use that much ink and paper! It might be cheaper to pay the £20!

The price does seem high, but it is a very thick manual of some 237 pages, and to be fair the older 32 page manuals come in at around £4.50, so I suppose it depends how you look at it.

The manual comes free with UK stock, a small benefit of buying from a UK source.

Perhaps there are some manuals on eBay? I'll go and have a look now!

In the distant past I have bought all sorts of lenses, but for a long time it has been "Pentax only" and that has been a very good decision.

We have had our *istDs cameras for around 18 months and have never had to clean the sensor, nor have we had any dust marks.

Change lenses as little as possible, always point the camera down when changing lenses, always switch the camera off when changing lenses. Avoid dusty environments.

A lens hood is always a good idea as it reduces the possibility of flare.

I don't think I've ever registered a product or even returned a guarantee form...as you say, this applies to the UK, where such activities are entirely optional!

The default setting out of the box is JPEG 10MP best quality setting.

What I don't understand is why bother with that, you could just set the lens to f8 in Aperture Priority and let the camera set the shutter speed. Obviously a tripod could be needed in dimmer light.

In any event, in real-life photography we are unlikely to see much difference in resolution or sharpness between perhaps f8 and f16 with a zoom lens, and even wider with a prime.

When the operation of the camera starts to get too complex I'm sure that we can simplify things and get back to basics. And switch our attention to the image rather than the technicalities.