Algi, you moved the camera. You really are off on a tangent with this and you can't see why. You are flying in the face of what every single photographic writer knows.

For the last time, perspective depends upon your distance from the subject, nothing else.

If you never use it, maybe eBay could be a better bet? Storing electronic cameras for long periods of time doesn't do them much good. I'm just wondering if you might just end up with a non-functional body that's worth nothing, rather than selling now and buying again when needed.

However, if you are leaving it for a very long period take the battery out. When you get back to it you may have to reset the date and time.

You well might Chris.

You do need to think this through, because your whole post has several misunderstandings in it.

The only way to change perspective is to alter the distance you are from the subject. That's why a 50mm lens will give a more pleasing look to a face than going in close with an 18mm lens. You are further away from the subject so the perspective changes. This is what gives the apparent compression with long lenses. If you enlarged the centre of a wide angle lens to match the FOV of a long lens, then the compression would be exactly the same, assuming that is you are stood in the same place for the two images.

We've covered this in excruciating detail in a recent thread.

Probably best to ask on a walking and hiking forum! Or just visit an outdoor gear supplier?

PS I should mention the competition judge that had Len outraged and the whole club very amused.

The Judge peered myopically at Len's darkroom print and declared, "It's a bit pixelated...."

Hundreds of examples, but you need to try this for yourself. Black and white papers are bromide papers, whereas warm toned ones are chlorobromide. The difference is in the warmth of the image and my general preference was always for warm tones. The classic paper was Kodak Bromesko White Fine Lustre, but that is long gone.

I moved on to Agfa papers, which were also beautiful, but today I guess that the choice is becoming more limited.

There's also a place for standard black and white of course, it depends very much on the image. It's part of the creative choices you have available to you and you no doubt need both. Exploring the nuances of black and white darkroom working could take you a lifetime.

I was quite a good printer. My friend Len worked commercially and he was an excellent printer, based on making 300 prints a day, every day for over 20 years. But I've even seen better than Len, so there's no ceiling in what you could aim for.

A good black and white print, warm toned or not, should "sing" from the paper. It should stop you in your tracks with its pure beauty. Not every print will achieve this!

Pentax started as a camera made by the Asahi Optical Co Ltd. Before then it was the Asahiflex. I don't think this change would have had the same furore greeting it in the 1950s.

These days there seems a certain sensitivity to any sign of change, in case it means something deeply disturbing. How did this happen? Surely we welcome change and progress and embrace new technology? It's exciting stuff, or at least some of it is.

If the worry is that Ricoh will take Pentax branded products in a direction we don't like there's no sign of it yet. If anything, quite the contrary.

I don't see much wrong with the manuals, they describe all the functions. Maybe we should be happy we get a manual at all, rather than just a CD?

Unknown I'm afraid, not credited to anybody as far as I can see, although obviously someone write it somewhere! It says Pentax originated it, so maybe the PR company?