I agree that as long as the metering is consistent there's no problem. I usually have my K200D set at +0.7 but it's not consistent, which is the main reason I always shoot in RAW.

DSLRs do have several different metering options, so I'd recommend checking that this is set up properly before blaming the camera (you may have done this already).

John Lewis started stocking Pentax around a year ago, maybe more. Good to see, certainly.

Looking at their website, the prices are competitive and they have a two-year guarantee.

Wow, I'm surprised to see such sharp scans from a V500 - exactly the same machine I use! Other people frequently manage to get better results out of it than I do though.

As for dust etc - I give my negatives and the inside of the scanner (top and bottom) a few good blasts with my rocket-blower, a few strokes with my lens brush and then use the high quality setting of the scanning software's ICE for good measure. I've never found dust to be a problem with these measures.

Recently I have started playing with fixing the colour balance more in the scanning software and I've found that my V500 consistently over-saturates the green channel, almost always. Sometimes I lower the red too, but I rarely have to touch the blue.

Seems like a nice idea at first, but I don't trust it to take good care of a delicate sensor.

It sounds like the in-built motor is not working. I think the older two bodies use the focusing motor of the camera (rather than the lens) as they can't use in-lens motors.

Check if all the electrical contacts on the lens and the cameras are clean. The AF motor contacts are the ones slightly inside the mount (not on the mount ring itself).

If that doesn't work, then you may have problems with the motor itself (you wouldn't be the first person to have this problem). Sometimes the AF motor can be jogged into functionality by moving the focusing ring manually a bit, but this is likely a temporary fix and the lens will need to be repaired for it to work well long-term.

Good luck.

All three of those are wonderful shots, though I'd say the colour balance is off a bit - a little too magenta in the first one and very cold in the other two. Can I ask how they were scanned?

Your recent portraits and other shots on film are really motivating me to up my game in film. It's great to see other people using the medium, and especially to such good effect and using Pentax gear. I don't have the nerve to approach strangers for portraits though

The Portra films just come in one variety now I'm afraid, and have done for some years. I still have a few rolls of Portra 160NC in 220 though (expired in 2010), I got seven rolls (168 shots!) with the 124G I bought last year. It's beautiful stuff indeed.

I got 15 rolls of cheap Gold 200 this year and have recently found a shop with fairly cheap Fuji 100 (expired and discontinued), so there always seems to be a reason for me to use something other than Portra 160 in 135 format.

50mm is a very good length for portraits, as you show here. On digital, my favourite portrait lens is the DA 35mm limited, which has the same field of view.

Very well done, and keep them coming!

It sounds like FF is more than you need, so a down-size to APS-C could be beneficial. If you want to stick with DSLRs, then going to Pentax is the obvious choice as no-one else concentrates on the APS-C format. The other option would be mirrorless systems, but you may be put off by the sparse lens selection and the quality of the lenses too. The small size may also put you off.

I think the most important thing you need to think about is which lenses (and perhaps other items such as flashes) you will likely need the most, and check that Pentax has something that fits the bill. If you post here to say what you're looking for, I'm sure you'll get suggestions (likely a deluge of them!).

Nice photos. The older Pentax DSLRS keep performing well.

Photo four would maybe be better as B&W if the green cast can't be removed.

PM sent.

I'll take the P30T please, assuming it's working ok?

That'll complete my set of all the P30 series cameras