Personally I would sell the K20D with its original screen as one item and the Katzeye screen and grip separately. I would expect to get a better return that way.

However, unless I had to I would not sell a K20D just now. There are too many on the market as people move on to the K-5 at bargain prices, or even to buy the K30.

There will no doubt come a time when the K20D is a rarity in good condition and then might be better. Perhaps in a few months?

You're taking a chance sledger, and fomatting is best practice. It doesn't take long.

If you don't format then remnants of previous file structures will start to take up space on the card and you may get corruption of the files.

We format every time we re-use a card as ending up with a corrupted card, say at a wedding, would be indefensible.

Always format a card in the camera it is going to be used in.

Have you thought of a Photoshop course? Or Martin Evening's book?

Merging layers is the click of the right item in a pull down menu, as is flattening the image prior to saving or printing. It's top right in your layers dialog box.

You only see a portion of my photography on the web, so hard to say really.

More an abbreviation of the situation, which could do with an hour's tutorial to clarify and explain fully. This is the sort of thing we present as a workshop, or part of a workshop.

The first comment relates to many just no longer being used to manual focusing at all. I've had more than one person look through an SLR viewfinder and immediately reject it as unusable. Back to the screen on the back of the camera and they're happy again. It's the way it will go perhaps.

AF is more accurate refers to precision focusing, not easy manually and taking some time, deliberation and honing to the finest point. Even the throw of a focusing ring can affect our ability to be accurate. "Photo Technique" did the test in the 1970s or early 1980s. The amount of variation can be astonishing, depending on the individual.

AF accuiracy depends upon mechanical quality, the camera's ability to brake the lens and settle it at the right point, electronic accuracy, zoom position, focusing distance, light level, colour of light, direction of travel of the optics to the focus point....and nobody wants to pay high prices for a lens. Still, for most general purposes it's faster and more accurate to use AF.

That's a more detailed explanation of the thinking behind the comments quoted, although still probably not complete.

You keep saying this Smeggypants, but what it means is a bit obscure.

It is true that some focusing screens are designed for wider aperture lenses, but even so there's no problem focusing an f/1.4 lens. I really couldn't comment on f/1.2 lenses, only to say that writers who have reviewed them didn't find a problem there either.

The acutance of different eyesight may be a relevant factor. Tests revealed that the point of focus chosen by an individual widely varied anyway.

AF is probably more accurate.

Generally Mike, what happens in these threads forms useful feedback for future buyers and sellers, so we tend not to shift the threads elsewhere. A conversation can happily be continued elsewhere if needed, but it seems this one has said what it wanted to, so it's just a note for next time.

In Leads to Deals it would just be lost, eventually.

I would check out any online reviews, starting at www.photodo.com which is all about lenses.

Prices are best checked on eBay and in dealers' second hand stock listings. It shouldn't take long to find out where it lies.

However, the Pentax 55-300mm seems a much better bet.

I'll move this to Lenses until it's actually a for sale....

We digress, but the reason that polls are secret until you've voted are that there are some people who would want to skew the vote. There are even some, hopefully not on PU!, who like to vote for the "winning side", which is a bit bizarre, but that's what people tell me....