At the moment, the jessops offer on the *istDS with 18-55mm (which is what I use) is too good to miss. That's my opinion anyway.

The Pentaprism finder is gorgeous, much better than pentamirrors.

What are you waiting for?

Personally I would advise against trying to dismantle lenses. These are precision optics and putting them back together accurately may not be possible without the correct tools and calibration equipment.

If the pictures are OK then why not leave it at that. The cost of having the element replaced could well outweigh any price advantage that you might get by selling the lens.

Looks like a problem with the light seals....

Good luck with the dentist.

Sue and myself, Paul Jones and Des Barr all arrived at the NEC around 10am this morning.

First stop was to say hello to Pete Bargh at the impressive ePHOTOzine/Pentax User stand and then we started the long slog around the exhibition.

The camera manufacturers were fairly low key, but it was nice to see Pentax there, starting to be a bit more of a presence. Despite the fact that they couldn't show me either the 12-24mm or 16-45mm lenses! Ah, well, early days...

The bulk of the exhibition was based around printing, professional services, flash systems, digital processing, etc., and was 90% digital at least.

As all exhibitions, it took its toll on our feet, but we had a great day, and next year I have no doubt we'll be back for more.

Regardless of Focus, I did have it in mind that we should have a "get-together" at some point, maybe in the summer. I'm thinking about what sort of event that could be, but it seems a good idea in principle.

Myself and Sue and Paul Jones will be there on Monday. We'll be sure to look in at PentaxUser, so maybe see you there.

I think you would find this book answers all your questions:

The Ultimate Asahi Pentax Screw Mount Guide by Gerjan van Oosten (ISBN 90-76537-02-X)

The only level I would accept is none. If it were an insurmountable design defect I guess some subjects would go back to film.

Is there a problem, *istD Users? :

It's not the easiest of cameras to use for action shots - you really need to be able to set a high shutter speed and a DSLR would be ideal.

However, if you can increase the ISO that would help, I don't think there's much else you can do with that model. Have you tried "panning" with the movement of the horse?