Today we were briefly in Abergele so I did shoot a handful of quick images. I've resized these for the forum:

A phone box outside The Harp Inn.



The wall of a ginnel (love that word!)alongside The Harp.



A small alleyway.



A candid portrait in a coffee shop, shot at f/1.9.



And back home.



So far, I have no complaints. Fast focusing, excellent exposure accuracy and nice quality to the images. The "Pentax feel" is always a pleasure.

There were no such problems, otherwise the Pentax marque wouldn't have been viable. It just goes to show how careless comments on the web can influence new users.

The key issue was whether or not you experienced such problems, if you didn't it doesn't matter what others say to the contrary.

I tested the K-r for EPZ and found it to be excellent. No focusing problems, no hunting, AF was fast and it was great also in low light.

Clearly you are unhappy now with your Canon, which I can't comment on, but if you did buy a K30 then you should be able to buy it with confidence. It's a great camera.

It's just a shame you never got to enjoy your K-r.

Age is irrelevant. It needs to have clear glass, free of fungus. The stop down needs to be snappy and without any hesitation. Any aperture ring should work smoothly. There should be no play and manual focusing should be smooth. All accessories such as included lens hoods and caps should be present.

After all that, great cosmetic condition and all the packaging would be very nice, but not essential.

That was the provocative first slide of last night's presentation at ADAPS but later in the show the speaker said, "I never did tell you whether I used Canon or Nikon and I'm sure you want to know."

Then he revealed he has always used Pentax....the effect of this "bombshell" was only diluted by him unknowingly being surrounded by rather a high concentration of Pentax Users.....so yeah, we use Pentax too!

It helps if they sponsor education, but I think the more valid point is that they should explain properly what they have designed a lens for and what its properties are. Rather than every lens being "the most versatile in the range" let's know if it's designed to be softer wide open for portraits or razor sharp wide open for commercial photography.

I've owned two and if they are then I'm not glowing in the dark yet.

I'm surprised that you haven't returned the camera if there are issues with all lenses. Surely that is intolerable?

If others are having no issues then it's likely something is very amiss with your camera and/or lenses.

To clarify though, we only use Pentax lenses. Are you having problems with third party lenses or Pentax ones?

Because the Lightroom filter is one specific type of effect. On the other hand, we might find a cheap Domiplan lens in a car boot sale and find that it produces something quite different and useful for portraiture or flowers. We could experiment with various old lenses. perhaps a brass portrait lens, or an Aero-Ektar or anything else.

Software is incredibly powerful, but it isn't the only answer and it isn't a panacea.

As I've said before, Pentax have delivered almost everything this forum said it wanted, over the past three or four years it's been a steady trickle.

We might have to be patient, but things do arrive.

Interesting. Niche is probably true of ultra-wide, wide aperture lenses. Fine for composing and focusing purposes, but I would think most users actually stop down to f/8 and beyond or even leave the camera on Program.

I have fairly often been surprised to find some very experienced (you'd think) photographers who have never gone beyond Program or even Green mode.

Of course there's always a gap between what we say we want, even think we want, and what we'll actually spend hard cash on.

That seems odd, why of all things a 20-24mm f/1.8? I'm not sure who that would appeal to, given that most wide angle photography is done at small apertures, particularly landscapes.

Now an 80-400mm would surely be more immediately appealing?