Every forum has a North CMW.

The only testing I've seen was of a selection of batteries. It was linked to on this forum some time ago, long lost by now I should think. What it showed was that the only new battery to meet the specification was the Pentax one. The others fell short, some of them were dismal, but of course those were new batteries and it tells us nothing about the life expectancy.

However, to balance that, nothing is perfect and of all the (high) number of cameras that have passed through my hands the only failed used battery I've come across was a Pentax one! Even that means nothing though as it's possible to kill Lithium batteries and we have no idea what previous owners did with it.

I've never seen any testing of that Stan. Has anyone?

I'm a bit puzzled as to how your friend could check anything for you if she hadn't used a digital camera before, but in any event you should be able to retrieve all or most of your images.

The problem with this as logic is that we don't actually know that. For all we know some batteries might be made in highly dangerous back-street operations and leaked into the market. Some might even be copies of the real thing, but not to the same standards. Some might not have critical electronics added that the real product does have. Some might be superb.

But we don't know and there's no control over it. What we do know is that the manufacturer has a product that they say is OK and that they are responsible for the standard of. Recalls happen, but that's good because faulty batches should be recalled.

Yes, the 50mm f/1.4 is a mystery. It must be the longest serving discontinued product ever. They must have made more batches, it's just too long to simply be finding more stock.

There have even been batches of the A series 50mm f/1.2 reported, but only in Japan.

The new Pentax DSLR Product Guide lists all the available products and includes the K-5 II and K-30. I'm sure these will be available for long enough, until the next new products arrive, even if production has stopped, although that's still a rumour not a fact.

Because Nigel the auto correction that happens in the lab isn't the same as doing it yourself. In the same way a commercial black and white print won't be as good as your own work in the darkroom. This all assumes you have the necessary level of skill.

The better you get the more you will want to control the process yourself.

Macro lenses used to be 1:2, with a dedicated extension tube to increase the magnification to 1:1. So a tube is the best option and it will deliver what you need.

Your lens is a true macro lens and it's corrected accordingly. It will also have a nice flat field for photographing flat subjects such as documents.

The second hand value is an interesting point. Will an unusual colour combination enhance a sale, or the opposite? Time will tell I guess.