I hadn't realised that. So you save half but your setup has to look ridiculous...

Hmm, not worth it. And now it's out of stock anyway.

The black Friday offers from Pentax are not very impressive, mostly clothing, binoculars and small free gifts like a roll of film. However, the standout deal is the HD DA 70mm f/2.4 Limited at half price - £325.00 (€325.00 if in the EU).

I think that's about what you'd pay for a used copy normally.

https://pentax.eu/collections/black-friday-offers

Yeah, I was trying to find it there but it seems that one's OK, which suggests something that got stuck in the mechanism part-way through the roll.

Some good results but it looks like your film has a scratch about a sixth of the way up in the images. Could be that particular film or could be the camera.

Just as no one lens can do everything specs-wise (speed, focal length, sharpness, bokeh, size, weight etc) no lens can do everything in terms of user satisfaction - sometimes you need AF or peak sharpness to get the job done and sometimes you just need the feel of a well, designed and well-built manual focus lens with buttery-smooth focus.

My favourite manual focus 85mm is an f/1.7 Minolta. It's gorgeous to look at with that huge front element, built like a tank and feels great to use. I imagine the A*, or maybe even the K or a Takumar, might be better optically wide open but they're also significantly more expensive.

That looks OK to me. I owned a Pentax DA WR 50-200mm for a few years and was never very happy with the sharpness, even stopped down to f/8. I switched to taking an older M-series prime (135/3.5 or 120/2. which was smaller, faster, much sharper but of course fully manual.

I briefly owned a 16-45 and found it larger and heavier than I had expected and quickly sold it.

Avoid the older SDM version of the 16-50mm f/2.8 - the AF motor will surely fail.

If you change your mind about a used Sigma, I see that SRS have a 10-20/3.5 and also a 17-50/2.8. The latter was my main zoom for a time and it's a very good lens with gorgeous rendering of images. Cheaper than the 20-40mm you looked at although 300 for that lens is a good deal, it's excellent even though it doesn't go very wide.

https://www.srsmicrosystems.co.uk/dpt/used-equipment/used-sigma-dc-10-20mm-f35-e...

https://www.srsmicrosystems.co.uk/dpt/used-equipment/used-sigma-ex-dc-17-50mm-f2...

Although it's not particularly fast for low light, hand-holding should be quite feasible at a very wide angle and with IBIS - the Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 is an excellent lens, very wide and often available now much, much cheaper than they were only a few years ago.

MPB have a few cheap ones but they're not in great condition. The cheapest one I see that's in good condition is this one at WEX: https://www.wexphotovideo.com/sigma-10-20mm-f3-5-ex-dc-hsm-pentax-fit-used-32872...

I0d say the HDR one looks awful to be frank - it's very obviously HDR. I'd take the first one and lower the shadows to give it back some contrast.

I found the listing again - it's advertised at €240 and looks in good cosmetic condition other than the missing switch. The seller gives no info on whether or not it functions well so may not know anything about photographic equipment.