Nicholas,

Over the years I have bought so many photographic items where it seemed a good idea to save money, and usually it wasn't! If only I'd bought only Pentax lenses from the start I would have saved a fortune in the long run...

However, I understand that cash for students can be tight and having a 28mm lens of some type will be better than none at all.

Wide angles can be pretty poor, especially in edge definition, but there are some good ones that might be very inexpensive. In screw thread, I can vouch for the Lydith 30mm (almost a 28mm!) and I understand the Kiron 28mm f2 is a fine wide aperture lens. I also once had a Vivitar 28mm f2.5 with a huge front element, and it was a good lens.

Hope this helps, and maybe others can come up with some other suggested lenses.

Good luck!

I am involved in taking photographs for the "Images of England" project, which involves mainly architectural photography. I am considering revamping some of my lenses and investing in a couple of Pentax zooms that could well be useful. These are the 20-35mm and the 24-90mm. My question is, are these sufficiently distortion free to use for this type of photography? Also, am I likely to be satisfied with the sharpness for my monochrome prints up to around 16 x 12 inches?

Any informed opinions would be most welcome!

To the best of my knowledge, these two lenses are the same lens with different badges - therefore, buy the one with the lowest price!
However, it must be said that good wide angles cannot be made cheaply. It depends what size you intend to enlarge the pictures to, but I would not use the lenses mentioned for the 16" x 12" black and white prints that I make. On the other hand, they could be OK for 6" x 4" colour prints. I would expect more flare with these lenses, lower contrast and less durability than you would expect from a genuine Pentax lens.
If you want a cheap wide angle zoom, the SMC Pentax-M 24-35mm is a superb lens, available widely second hand at very reasonable prices. It is, of course, manual focus only, but does that matter for a wide angle?
If you use only pentax lenses, all the controls work the same way (direction of f-stops etc), the colour balance will be consistent and the quality will be second to none.
In summary, I would without doubt buy pentax and buy second hand to get a mass of superb lenses at really low prices!

The usual reason for a two part hood is to enable the use of either filters or hood that are wide enough to prevent vignetting. I think you will find that using 58mm items on this lens will run the danger of corner darkening - it's all to do with the optical design.

eBay is the obvious hunting ground for rare items, but also any camera fairs. Searching camera fairs for an odd item like this could take a long time....

Just like yourself, I always use the proper dedicated Pentax lens hoods, usually they clip on which saves a lot of messing about. Even the screw-in hoods are made to such high standards that they put the standard generic hoods to shame.
As regards the zoom you mention, I can't find any reference to the specific hood at all. The lens started life as a late screw-thread model and was carried on into the first run of K mount lenses, probably with no change to its design. I would be very surprised if there were no dedicated hood - every other lens has one - so keep searching!

This lens is listed in the the Pentax publication "The Eyes", which indicates that it takes 67mm filters. There is no mention of a specific lens hood, but I will check my older information and see if I can find anything.

I only opened one lens up ever - a SMC Pentax-A 50mm f1.7 - and I spent a long time looking very sadly at a desktop littered with strangely shaped bits of metal that had undefined and uninterpretable functions. I never opened another lens no matter how simple it looked!

I have a sneaking suspicion that it will be more cost effective to purchase another Vivitar lens. I recently got a quote for a simple clean of a lens diaphragm of £75.00, presumably because it is a job that takes time and time is expensive. How much would a replacement lens cost?

Hope these thoughts are of assistance.

Best wishes,

ADAPS will have a selection for you to consider as soon as we can!

First it was AP (see a previous post) and now the Atherton & District Amateur Photographic Society (ADAPS) is featured in a two page spread in DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHER magazine!

Members featured are Paul Jones, Barry Fairclough, Mike Syddall and my very own wife Sue Riley!

Our club info is found at www.adaps.org.uk

If you are worried about film being X-rayed, I have always understood that the most resistant colour film would actually be Kodachrome. This is because it is basically a black-and-white film until the colour dyes are added from the processing chemicals, quite unlike any other colour film on the market. That is what I would, and do, use and you could happily enter your USA address on the labels and the films would be waiting for you on your return.
That's the "lateral thinking" bit, but if you want to shoot colour negative material there are probably hundreds of outlets who can process and print the same day wherever you go in the UK.
If you want professional quality labs, that is another matter, and buying perhaps a copy of "Amateur Photographer" when you arrive will give you several options.
Hope this helps, and maybe someone who lives in London can post a more specific reccomendation?