The P30T has a cable release socket on the side of the morror housing - and unusual location. Is the P30n the same?

The other common designation for the silver oxide version is SG13. The silver oxide batteries will give much longer lefe than the alkaline versions.

I understand they are also very good for infra-red photography, using the R72 filter, as they are quite sensitive to IR light.

I think it would be a shame to move away from Pentax - the ergonomics and the quality are superb and the price is keen as well.

There will be more lenses, I'm sure, but for now perhaps that 14mm and maybe the new 12-24mm zoom?

In any event, there are penty of 35mm-format Pentax lenses that would fit the profile. It would be no worse than buying into a new system - you might as well buy some new Pentax IMHO.

A trip to Staples solves all my typewriter ribbon needs, such as they are...the only thing we need ribbons for these days is the Sharp FontWriter, a strange word processor that isn't compatible with PC type files. The text won't format, and ends up in one long stream...

What has all this got to do with the original thread, by the way?

I guess it will all settle down in time, and the market will, with some degree of discomfort to those invloved, re-align itself.

I like using film cameras as well, and so do quite a few fellow members of our Photo Society (ADAPS). It's interesting to note that some of the younger members are actually starting out learning with film, and to cater for this demand we have refurbished our darkroom!

Equally, some of the older members have voracious appetites for Digital information as they wrestle with the new technology, so we run Digital Nights as well and we have a laptop and digital projector.

Competitions are interesting as they have moved away from slides and we now have masses of inkjet prints entered. If we ever decide to include projected digital files, then maybe we'll end up with a pile of CDs every month instead.

So far we have stuck to prints and slides, because an experiment with digital projection showed up that digital projectors are dramatically brighter than slide projectors, and the 35mm slides looked pretty poor by comparison.

So I'm very interested in this ebb and flow because i run the syllabus and need to keep up with where people's interest is going. These days it leads to a very varied programme!

Kim, you're not going to get shot down in flames! You argue your point very well and I pretty much agree with you.

I'm not sure that many people were suggesting that film would be hard to get hold of, although I do think colour negative could be the first to drop away very dramatically indeed. BW and transparency film is more of a niche market and may well even increase slightly, especially as a small backlash against digital is quite possible.

In the end, I'm sure digital will win out over film. The convenience is just too much on its side, and unfortunately ultimate quality is not the mass objective.

I can just imagine the conversations where people were adamant that stand cameras would never give way to the miniature (that, is, the 2 1/4 square camera!). I've also read articles that expounded that colour film was quite unnecessary and would never overtake black and white.

The discussions don't change, but the subject matter does!

You would think so, but the medium format manufacturers are in trouble. Bronica have stopped, Hasselblad are suffering, the pentax 645 will be joined (replaced?) by a digital version.

Digital backs may be the way forward for many professionals, who will save a fortune on film and peocessing....

You would get good prices for many of thise lenses, as demand is strong for unusual manual focus lenses.

When you move to a DSLR the small sensor will mean that the lenses will act as though they were 1.5x their marked focal lengths. This is because you are only using the centrel 22x15mm of their covering power.

Being "A" lenses, all your kit will work fine on the *istD range of DSLRs.

So the 15mm will be a very bulky lens for a 22.5mm equivalent. The 100mm will act as a 150mm, and so on.

Clearly this extends your telephoto reach very well, but the widest angle you have will be reduced. Because of this, purchase of the upcoming 12-24mm could be very helpful.

Digital lenses are more compact and better suited to the requirements of the CCD because of their telecentric design. However, your existing lenses may well range from fair to excellent on the DSLR and you would have to see if they still suit you.

Maybe time to start reading some digital magazines to get up to speed on the situation?

It's also worth mentioning that the idea of what "Hi Fi" means is different for different people. Certainly when I suggested the best vinyl would beat the best CD I was talking very high-end equipment. Unfortunately, compromise means the CD usually sounds better.

Sue is resistant to the idea that the turntable should be mounted on a large piece of rock, and even doesn't want the speakers mounted on stone slabs. Can you believe it?

A valve amplifier would also be nice, but expensive and not very suitable for the environment we live in.

The very best sound reproduction I have ever heard was in the offices of Private Stock Records in 1975. It was absolutely stupendous. In a similar vein, the best PAL TV picture I have ever seen was at the Post Office TV distribution centre, which again would make you think we don't actually need digital TV.....

Most of the stuff we listen to and view falls very far short of what is avtually possible.