The 1.7 is smaller, lighter, and sharper wide open.

The 1.4 has better bokey due to the eight (vs six) blades, and can be set at f/2.4 (where it performs superbly).

You won't get much money selling the 1.7, so you may as well keep it.

I believe B&H often mark items as "discontinued" just because they don't have stock. Take it with a pinch of salt.

I have an opportunity to get a Pentax K2 film SLR for £65. I've checked it out and it's in nice condition, no damage and the lightmeter works. It needs new seals but I can do that myself.

The problem is that it has the typical jammed ISO dial around the lens throat. I spent 10 minutes trying to move it and only managed to push it between ISO 16 and 32. As I don't know how much a repair will cost I'm hesitant to pay that much for the camera as a full CLA will cost around the same, and I don't know if the ISO dial would be included in a normal CLA, as it's an unusual model.

Has anyone had any experience with this or know how much it might cost to fix?

Many thanks

"I'll have one of each please!"

¡bienvenido al foro!

I really like #1 and #3.

There's no need for ears to be in focus at all, the only thing that needs to be in focus in a portrait is the eye closest to the camera, or both if the shot is taken exactly front-on. I'd recommend f/2.8 to f/4, light allowing, which looks like what you've gone for.

I imagine that the DA 50/1.8 would be fine for portraits. However, I think that using a manual lens will give the subject more of an impression that you are working for a result rather than just aiming and pressing the button (and it will be true). You may want to install a specialist focusing screen such as a Katzeye if you're going to use a lot of manual lenses. Failing that, you can focus bracket by taking a series of shots while changing focus slightly.

I use old lenses for many things, but a fast 50 is hard to beat for portraits. I've used many and my favourite is the SMC Takumar 55mm f/1.8, but you may not want to go M42, and to be honest, there's very little in it. The M 50mm f/1.7 is a fine choice, and you won't find any other lens of such quality for the price.

You might want to post some photos of the lens and to state if it's the older f/2.8-4.5 or the newer f/2.8-4 version.

Good luck with the sale.

Get Eneloops and just as importantly - buy a good charger!

Which version of the M do you have? I had a version 1 (the more common) and agree entirely. It's the poorest Pentax lens I've used. I now have a version 2, which has the same optics as the later A series model, and it's far superior. On film it has some barrel distortion but on digital much less.

Having said that, I'm likely to sell it quite soon because I now have an M 35mm f/2, which will replace the 28mm as my main wide lens for film, and serves as a very nice fast standard prime for digital. I still have the K 28mm f/3.5 and Vivitar 28mm f/2 to choose between for 28mm