It's only Monday, give the poor guy a chance!

I'll drop him a line in a while to see what's happening.

It's been discussed many times on the forum, but the f/1.7 and f/1.4 lenses are quite different in their design philosophies.

The f/1.7 is the all-rounder and the better lens in many respects. Flatter field makes it better close up. Higher resolution for finer detail. It's the lens that can be abused more and still give results, for example on bellows, with close up lenses, etc.

The f/1.4 is the fast reportage lens, gritty and contrasty but with lower overall resolution and a more curved field. It's not at its best close up. Perfect for street photography, and low light use of course.

I've removed two unnecessary comments.

Well that's fine, but I think the guidelines do sum it up. Whatever we call it won't IMHO make much difference. Some posters seem to put their posts randomly in any handy section anyway!

Time to give that aspect of it a rest now Nigel, let's get back to the images?

There's no need for anyone to be over sensitive, it's easy to take offence when we invest a lot of ourselves in an image but we have to be able to take it. Whatever the section it would still probably end up being moved into this section as this is Your Photos.

As for critique the same applies. We have to be able to take reaction to our critique.

Just remember please, keep the discussion about the pictures, not about personalities.

The lenses are the same optical formula throughout, but there may well be development in the coatings and there's always sample deviation as well.

The FA lens we have works fine on the K-5, just as snappy focusing as anything else.

However, I'm thinking if you really like the M series lens you have, why change it?

Vic has a point. The Asahi Optical Co was the company that first brought us Pentax SLRs. "Pentax" has always been used to describe the model range, just like "Espio" or "Optio" have described compacts.

It's only for one, quite long admittedly, period that the company became Pentax Corporation in some areas. For some of that time at least the Japanese parent was still called Asahi Optical Co. Ltd.

The answer to that is quite simple - two categories means two listing fees.

It was an interesting point that I was mulling over when posting stuff on eBay. The "lenses" section does actually include some catalogues entries for lenses as far back as the M series, albeit very badly put together. There are no catalogue entries in the "vintage lenses" section, for obvious reasons.

There's less doubt for, say, Voigtlander SLRS lenses, which are either modern or dating back to the early 1960s at latest, so the division is very clear.

With Olympus, Nikon and Pentax in particular it becomes a moot point. It was interesting to see what others thought about that dividing line. I'm not sure that can be extrapolated into selling more lenses at higher prices though. Pentax and Olympus sell well enough, the rest also can do well but it's less certain. It may reflect that long term usability.

I printed off my A3 prints for the next club competition today, including this one shot on the MX-1:


It did not look out of place next to the K-5 shots, so I was very pleased and encouraged by its qualities.