I'll leave it, thanks

I'm interested but would like to see some pictures please.

Some years ago I bought a Super A on this forum (from someone else who doesn't seem to be around any more) and when it arrived it didn't work (can't remember what the problem was but it seemed to be an electronics problem) so that soured me on them but I might give one another try. I can replace light seals easily.

Welcome to the forum - that looks like a great collection, drool-worthy even

I had a bad experience with a cheap adapter getting stuck. Luckily, I was trying it in a used camera shop and their tech was able to release it from my K200D, but still, the experience put me off M42 lenses for a couple of years. Since then I have only ever touched the genuine adapters and have never had a problem. I'm sure I own three but one seems to have gone walkies.

The plastic cog issue prevents the camera from working entirely - the whole mechanism seizes up.

PM sent.

I'll take it.

I don't suppose you know if it's had the dreaded plastic cog replaced with a metal one at any point?

If all you want is focal range coverage regardless of speed then the 18-135 covers that and it's not expensive. I've never used one but many people like it a lot. The 16-85mm provides even better image quality though covers less range overall and is more expensive.

For me, a walkabout lens means a prime, and for that there's the DA 35mm Limited (superb), the HD FA 35/2 (very good) and the DAL 35/2.4 (not so good but many like it).

I looked around for a waist-level finder when I had the LX but the only one I found cost almost as much as the camera. I bought a sheet of black foam with the intention of making a shade and using the camera with no finder at all (which can't be done with most other SLRs with interchangeable viewfinders) but I never got around to it.

For my part I got hold of a few items that were waiting for me when I went home last week:

- A third Z1 camera which seems to work fine
- An SMC Tak 50/1.4 from Lenny bloke which is also in good condition and works well
- A Nikon Ai 50mm f/1.4. It seems OK but I wanted to see what all the fuss was about with Nikon manual lenses and it's really nothing special - aperture in whole stops only, quite poor manual focus (feels almost like using an AF lens in MF) and performance that's a little worse than the Pentax K or M 50/1.4s.
- A preset Tele-Takumar 300/6.3 I had been looking forward to but unfortunately the people at West Yorkshire Cameras still seem to have problems with either honesty or accurately assessing the condition of what they sell. Manual focus feels like the grease has mostly dried up, which was not really unexpected, but they'd made no mention of the obvious fungus in the lens. Of the four items which aren't accessories I've bought from them, three have been in much worse condition than described (the exception being the Z1 above). Certainly not a company to be trusted unfortunately. I ended up just leaving the 300mm at my parents' house, it wasn't even worth the suitcase space it would have taken up to bring it back.

I'm glad to hear you're already enjoying it. I will stick to my MXs and K2DMD as my favourite manual Pentaxes.