You've got a great camera that will last longer and work harder than many current models!

I would start slowly to build up a kit. Use the 50mm lens for a while and take lots of pictures. If you find the need for more lenses your results should guide you as to whether you need a wide angle or a telephoto as the first addition to your kit. If you are doing long exposures, perhaps at night or for maximising depth of field by using small apertures, then you may well need a tripod. If you are using b/w film you may well need some filters to bring out the clouds in the sky. Look at lots of pictures for ideas, read photographic magazines for info and techniques.

If you were to choose a basic prime lens line-up, I think a good choice would be: 24mm-50mm-100mm.
With zooms perhaps: 28-80mm and 80-320mm

My actual line up is 15mm-20mm-24-90mm zoom-100mm Macro. My two lens kit would be 24mm and 100mm.

Obviously a lot of this depends on what type of photography you are interested in. Portraits will benefit from a short telephoto (85mm-150mm) and lanscapes or architecture may need wide angle lenses. Personal preference is the thing, it depends on how your photography develops, and only you can find out the answers for yourself. I hope these general comments, though, may help in at least making the first choices.

I hope you enjoy the choices you make!

Takumar lenses were the name given to the screw mount lenses on Pentax cameras prior to 1975, when the K mount (bayonet) was introduced. The Takumar name later appeared on some budget Pentax bayonet lenses.

You need K mount and later lenses for the K1000. Lenses descibed as K, M, A, F and FA will all bayonet directly onto your K1000. Earlier screw mount lenses can also be fitted using an adapter called the Mount Adapter K, but this is not the most convenient choice.

Almost all lenses have a filter thread on the front to accept filters. The size for your 50mm lens is 49mm and many other sizes are used. Most zooms will use 52mm, 58mm or 67mm filters in the Pentax range.

I can tell you that the ME and MX were introduced at a price of £189.95 for ME with 40mm lens, £199.95 with 50mm and £199.95 and £209.95 for the MX with the same lenses. This is from memory, but I will check it in my old magazines when I get the chance. The prices fell steadily over the years and the MX ended up at around £129.95 with 50mm lens I think.
The ME Super arrived next in line, followed by the ME-F with its autofocus lens. The MV (no self timer or winder capability) and the MV1 (self timer and useable with winder) came in with simplified traffic light exposeure indication, and the MG then improved on this with an indication of shutter speeds in the finder. Prices of the MV with 40mm lens were around £89.95 and £99.95 for the MV1.

I can be more specific about the details if you need the info please let me know and it will probably take a few days to pull the information together.

Atherton & District Amateur Photographic Society (ADAPS) is delighted to be featured in the new issue of PENTAX USER magazine - many thanks to Peter Bargh and his team for the great layout and superb printing quality.

It's an incredibly small world - I was working at Portmeirion today at a meeting of Dentists and was approached by one of the dentists who had already seen and noted the magazine. It seems there are plenty of Pentax users out there in the big wide world!

We were also surprised and pleased recently to get an e-mail from Canada from the grandson of one of our founder members. A reflection of how fantastic the Internet is at bridging the world.

I'm not specifically familiar with the MZ-7, but the general principle with lenses is that they work in the same way on most camera bodies - that is, the limiting factor is the lens. So an M series lens will give manual and aperture priority options. An A series lens will add the possibility of program mode and shutter priority. An F or FA lens adds autofocus to the appropriate bodies.

I like the MX very much and as I update to more modern bodies I have chosen the MZ5 and MZ3 cameras as these have conventional shutter dials and it is possible to use them in exactly the same way as the MX if I so choose.

However, the MX remains just about the perfect manual body, and it has outlasted something like half a dozen ME-type bodies!

Hi Mark and welcome to the forum.

The *ist custom function enables the use of lenses with an aperture ring, as opposed to the new J lenses which have no such ring but control the aperture with camera controls instead.

I think that if you used a lens with aperture ring with the *ist and kept that lens on "A" then the camera would control the aperture just as if a J lens were fitted. The custom function merely enables you to take the lens off "A" or to use M series or earlier lenses with no A setting. I am open to correction on this because we have not yet fully evaluated our new *ist, but that is what I read the situation as so far.

Sue likes her new *ist which shares much of the operational style of her digital camera. For myself, I think I prefer the MZ5 and MZ3 designs.

If you are in the UK the best place to start is probably to buy a copy of "Amateur Photographer". There are plenty of advertisers that have the items you are looking for.

"FA" is an autofocus lens. In general, all lenses can be used on the latest bodies, but the features available will depend on the lens. For example:
Screw mount lenses can be used withe K adapter but only with stop down metering.
K and M lenses are the first bayonet lenses and can be used with manual metering, aperture priority metering and of course with manual focus.
A lenses enable also program and shutter prioity metering.
F and FA lenses are autofocus and allow all metering patterns and other functions. FA* denote very high qualioty professional lenses with special glasses.
This list is not complete, but I hope it gives an outline of what you can expect.

I have been using newer bodies alongside my MX and various ME derived cameras. The ones for me that stand out are the MZ5, MZ5n and MZ3. These retain proper shutter speed dials, metal mout and add a host of new features that can be used if desired. I suggest you handle these cameras at a dealer and see for yourself how well they can fit in with the lenses and handling that you are used to. Whilst buying the new body you might as well include a standard zoom for the minimal extra cost it will involve.

The LX is a superb but heavy professional body - make sure you get a little used amateur owned one!

SMC stands for "Super Multi Coated" and the "A" refers to lenses with an "A" setting on the aperture ring for use with the A series (Super A etc) and later cameras.

Do tell us what you choose and how you get on with it!

We use Photoshop - Sue uses a digital camera and may well upgrade to the *istD in due course. I use slide or b'w film and scan if I want to print digitally or make major adjustments to the pictures.

Whichever way, it's probably better for the picture out of the camera to be a bit flat, providing all the information is there. It is then within Photoshop that adjustments are made and as long as the end result has the sparkle you need that's all that matters.

A couple of basic tips: Don't over-sharpen, apply unsharp mask as the last step, and try the following sharpening technique:

Go to Image>Mode>Lab Color
Go to Channels pallette and switch off a and b channels so you are looking at the lightness (b/w) channel. Apply unsharp mask to this channel (and you can apply quite a lot if you want to - perhaps up to 180%) Then reconvert to RGB ready for printing. (Image>Mode>RGB)

By doing this, the colours are not "Fuzzy" but the underlying b/w image is very sharp and the technique is very effective, much better than just sharpening in RGB mode.

According to the pentax price list on this web site the 45mm 67 lens does indeed take 82mm filters, and a selection of these is also given. Thinking of the lenses that my ADAPS firend Len Hudson uses I thought this lens took screw type filters. Is the bayonet fitting not for a lens hood to be attached?

As a general comment, if you can't get a particular filter in the Pentax range then B&W have an extensive selection. As regards adapters, SRB Services, who advertise regularly in AP, can provide or make just about anything that you can imagine!