SMC Pentax DA-F 50mm f2.8
SMC Pentax DA-F 100mm f2.8

Both are suitable for film and digital SLRs and have aperture settings on the lens.

I have recntly bought one of these for an excellent price on eBay and have now had a chance to use it over the past couple of days. We spent a while in the Lake District and shot hundreds of frames on our *istDS cameras.

The lens is not generally well thought of, but with a 35mm-equivalent of 450mm at the long end it does need to be kept rigidly still to avoid camera shake. The merest hint of shake destroys critical sharpness and even a tripod may not be enough.

In fact it needs a very sturdy tripod and very careful technique to get the best out of this lens, but it is in fcat not at all bad. It is especially nice for very long-distance macro shots of flowers and sharpness for this purpose is very high. Colour fidelity is also excellent and I found little trace of chromatic abberation.

Long distance shots can be good, but need crystal clear atmospheric conditions.

All in all, very useful and pleasant to use with some good results, but difficult to get the best out of this lens.

Unfortunately you do need to use stop down metering, which is a minor inconvenience. Pity you don't have the "A" version, which would give full functionality.

Glad to hear you found a lens cap though!

The 15mm f3.5, which was actually first a K series lens and then an A series with no M version, is excellent on film cameras.

On digital the one thing that hasn't been mentioned is it is huge and heavy and really IMHO a pretty over the top way to achieve a 22.5mm equivalent. I really think the 14mm DA or 16-45mm DA lenses would be much more appropriate, and will probably perform better as well.

I'm absolutely sure, and you will find various threads on the subject on this forum. The reason is that there are no electronic contacts on these lenses and the digital bodies have dropped the mechanical linkage so are electronic only.

Digital has turned many preconceptions upside-down, and the current digital lenses can be better than the traditionally highly regarded ones. Technology has seriously moved on.

This does not mean that older lenses are inferior, but their design can mean they are less suitable for digital. However, some are still superb and they are also well documented on various threads.

My reply was assuming you were considering lenses for your proposed new K10D. The lenses suggested are for digital DSLRs only.

The 18-55mm is equivalent to roughly a 28-80mm lens on a 35mm SLR, focuses very close and performs very well. As such, it is, at the very modest cost as part of a package, very useful. Your K and M series lenses will not be quite so convenient on the digital bodies as you will have to use them in stop-down mode.

Of course, whatever anyone suggests, you always need to consider your own particuar style of photography and requirements.

The 18-55mm that is packaged with the body is very low cost and worth having. Don't forget that the small sensor means a 1.5x magnification to the focal length. A 50mm lens acts like a 75mm would on a 35mm body.

The 16-45mm is much better quality and thoroughly recommended. The 12-24mm extends well into ultra-wide territory and is another superb lens.

If you upload your pictures to a web hosting service such as PBase then you will be able to link to them and show them to us all in this forum.

Alternatively, register with www.ephotozine.com and you will be able to upload one picture per day for the world to view and comment on. You get very valuable feedback this way.

To expand upon that, removing the cover means that the polariser can be rotated without having to remove the lens hood.

If you can find a friend in the USA perhaps they would buy for you, take delivery and send it on to you.

I have a contact in Australia and we have returned the favour a few times.

As long as you have built up trust it can be mutually beneficial.