When I was recently in New York for a week I saw five Pentaxians. Three I saw with DSLRs, another I saw with a film camera and the last was a young guy I asked to take a picture of my wife and I in the Metripolitan museum, afterwards he told me he had a K-x.

I saw a few other Pentaxes a few years ago in Belgium, but I don't think I saw any in Paris.

I prefer being in the minority. It's reassuring to see that most people are sheep who will buy whatever they hear is better without trying, researching or assessing it themselves.

I only use the Pentax one and couldn't be happier, as my initial experience was having a third party adapter stuck on the camera and needing a repair technician to remove it. I have two as I wanted a second one since they're no longer made. A good condition used one should cost around 30GBP.

I understand that cheaper ones can be hit and miss and that there are two types, one of which does not allow focus to infinity. I read recntly about an engineering company, in the UK I think, that makes good quality M42 adapters (amongst other things) and sells them new for 20 to 30 GBP. I'm afraid I don't seem to have noted the company name, but maybe someone else here can point you in the right direction.

Tamron is a separate kettle of fish from Sigma. I really hope, that if this lens is decent, that it will be released for Pentax.

Of course, if the lens doesn't perform well wide open then it will be completely pointless: a big, expensive zoom that has to be stopped down to f/2.8 to perform well would mean you'd be much better off with a 17-50/2.8.

You have to be careful with the 55-300 as it is slow to focus so you need to keep it steady, but once it's focused it should be plenty sharp. It sounds like you have a front focus or back focus problem.

I could be interested. Can you post some pictures taken with the lens and of the mount as I'm not sure what the problem is there?

Looks like an A21 (Cosina) or possibly A23 in the Vivitar 28mm bestiary (http://photografica.robinparmar.com/vivitar28detail.html#A21).

I'm guessing you did the hotel booking?

I'm going to be in London with my wife and two friends the weekend after you. From what I've seen, the travel card is the best option as it gives 2-for-1 entry to a lot of places. However, there are a couple of caveats:

1. It needs to be bought from a central London station, anywhere else won't do, there's a list somewhere online.

2. You need to print the 2-for-1 vouchers off from the internet. Unless you're taking a printer with you, this will need to be done before you go, which I need to look into this week.

I'm not sure where you stand with the kids - maybe 2-for-1 is valid for them too, if not, maybe it will be cheaper using it for adult tickets than paying full price for two kid tickets.

I have an Epson V500 which has a technology called ICE. This can't be used with B&W films as it turns anything close to black into a block of solid black, as well as some other problems. If your scanner has something similar, it could maybe be due to that.

They look good. I've never tried this film though I think it's about the cheapest out there, it looks fine to me. Are they scanned from the negatives or from prints?

For anyone considering this, I wish I had seen an offer like this before I bought mine a couple of months back. From someone who has had a look at the prices these go for, this is a good offer, and I'd much rather buy from this forum than ebay.

Good luck with the sale, John.

Some people really take the mickey with the carry-on. It's been a few years since I took an Easyjet flight in which all the carry-on fitted in the inside of the plane. They ask for volunteers to leave carry-on in the hold, in exchange for which they allow the volunteers to board first. In the case of insufficient volunteers it's the last people to board who have to give up their carry-on.

No way am I entrusting expensive camera gear (and sometimes my work laptop) in the hands of Easyjet. I have experience with lost luggage and Easyjet are bad, so my carry-on contains anything of real value plus clothes for at least three days.