Usually, if you enter blank values for the date, such as --/--/---- then nothing will appear on the film.

The manual is, let us say, challenging...There are sections where if I didn't know what they were talking about I would be utterly baffled....

When you press the DOF lever, the lens aperture stops down (closes) to whatever value you have set. This increases the DOF, so the background should have appeared sharper.

I think I'd suggest you try it in bright light, because the dimming does make the effect very hard to see, as has already been mentioned.

Depth of Field preview stops down the lens to the working aperture, be it f8, f11 or whatever. So you can, in theory, see what is in focus and what is not. Then you view the image at full aperture when the lever is released again so you can get the brighter view to compose your picture or to manually focus more easily.

In practice, I think the screen is too small to judge depth of field and I prefer to use other methods - either the depth of field scale if the lens has one, or the rule of thumb that you focus about a third of the way into a scene to focus on the hyperfocal distance.

The hyperfocal distance is whwere you have the maximum depth of field from infinity to the closest distance, for a given aperture. If you want an expansion of that explanation, please let me know!

I suppose that Pentax UK will keep running with those items that sell in the UK, and they don't really seem to promote 35mm SLRs. Their interest appears to be digital.

But we don't know what the situation is in other parts of the world, especially the USA where the turnover will be enormous compared to here and they may have more demand for traditional products. Certainlt their magazines were advertising things like 11" x 14" sheet film, when it would have been extremely unlikely that any such thing would be in the AP ads here.

I wonder what is still in production in Japan and the other Pentax factories around the wrold? For all we know, they might still be producing Special Edition LXs.....

If you are using a manual focus lens and you set the camera to AF, the shutter will only release when the in-focus indicator lights. If you want to be able to release the shutter at any time, then set the camera to MF.

The preview lever stops the lens down to the working aperture so a reading can be obtained at the working aperture. In manual exposure setting, you can use the aperture ring as long as, as you have found, you permit the use in the appropriate menu. So, take the reading, set the values appropriately and take the picture.

Thinking about film, it's made up of tiny silver halide particles, or picture elements if you like. When light strikes a single crystal, it either activates it or not. Or 1 or 0 putting it another way. When we print onto photographic paper a similar emulsion acts in the same way. So conventional photography is entirely digital and always has been...

Thinking about a CCD, each picture element (pixel) gives an output that varies with light intensity, a truly analogue signal. This has to be converted to a digital signal for the purposes of our computers. Do our digital cameras are actually part;y analogue devices....

The change to analogue is an interesting one!

Just as a general comment, I know lots of people who have problems with batteries, but it's often because they don't use the right batteries or they don't follow the instructions.

We are using 2300 mAh batteries without any problems in the *istDS. We don't buy cheap ones and we don't mix them up - I have seen one friend actually mixing rechargeables with Duracells, with not very satisfactory results....

In older cameras, silver oxide cells give better performance than alkaline cells, predictably.

If all else fails, read the instructions!

When you lend out a camera, you have no idea what has happened to it whilst it has been away....but on the other hand I do successfully buy and use second hand cameras, and I have no idea of their history either!

However, it is always possible for a fault to develop in anything at any time, so the answer is probably that you need to return it for repair, or, if that is not economical, then replace.

If you do replace, considering your specific requirement, it gives an ideal opportunity to review the current state of the market and see if Pentax are now offering an improved camera for you.

Yes, the 49mm filter size was abandoned for the K lenses, and then re-instated for the M series lenses.

The early bayonet (K) lenses are pretty much the same as the SMC Takumars optically, in fact even unchanged from the Super Takumars. It is also true that some later Super Takumars were Super-Multi-Coated and may even have the open aperture metering coupler of the SMC lenses.

So there is some overlap. Some K lenses survived the M series and were unachanged until the A series (such as the 15mm f3.5) and some are unchanged to this day (28mm Shift).

The K lenses are a little chunkier than the screw thread ones, hence the 52mm filter thread.

However, all are fine lenses and should be very satisfactory. It looks as though you will need to keep on searching for the appropriate lens hood, though.

The 100mm M series lens doesn't have a built in lens hood, but uses a clip on type intended for the 85mm also. Quite a few clip on hoods are for more than one focal length, which I guess reduces the efficiency for the longer lenses!

I agree that pull out lens hoods are not as efficient, but at least they are something, and the SMC coating does assist in reducing or eliminating flare.

Wide angle hoods are of even more limited use but it doesn't stop me using them anyway....