If anyone is wondering, I have a copy of the 135mm f3.5 and would highly recommend it - good IQ in a very compact package (with build in hood). Significantly smaller than the much-praised 135 f2.5, with less PF and in my experience not very much penalty to pay in terms of image quality. This price is good too (but Chris is mad to sell it.....).

Here's an example using the Tamron. I would have expected the Tokina to be fairly similar in terms of image quality and, as you say, certainly not as "milky" as the appearance you are getting:

Hmmm - I also own the Tamron 500mm mirror and have been very pleased with it. Used with care you can get great and sharp results - good enough to get in PPG for me. I'm surprised by the Tokina shot above. They also have a good reputation and I would have expected much better. Looks like something is not right to me.

Little bump to remind people - more details to come soon, but will definitely involve the Riverfront Bar by the BFI on the South Bank. Lots of good photo ops nearby too.

Got my K-7 back in full working order (thanks to SRS for pushing things along nicely) but without one of the leather strap lug protectors (thanks to SRS for sending one overnight!).

I noticed that they had "upgraded to the latest firmware" as part of the repair.

Hmmmm....

So that would be firmware version 1.0 then, would it?

Have now upgraded it back to where it was before it went in.... and sounds like 1.3 may be worth doing too.

So - if you send your camera to Johnsons for a repair and they touch the firmware, you might want to check they haven't reinstalled the original version from when the camera was first launched!

Cheers,

Jon

Not so sure - there are many Pentax medium format film users out there, and if they can use their existing lenses on a 645D that has what I understand to be the same sensor as a Hasselblad but at a fraction of the price, I think Pentax could sell quite a few in a market segment they may even be able to dominate. And medium format film users have tended to be the slowest to move to digital format so perhaps there are still quite a few out there who could be persuaded with the right product at the right price.

For dSLR, dominance is something that I think Pentax will never do with 35mm/FF size sensors - Canon and Nikon have pretty much sewn that up (even Sony is struggling to get in, with a lot more resource than Pentax). That's not to say that I wouldn't be first in the queue for a FF digital MX!... and oddly enough, maybe a niche FF camera - as small and rugged as possible but stripped of all unnecessary extras, might appeal to some others apart from me if the price was right? Somehow, if Pentax go there, they will need to be able to differentiate their product.

Sadly for Pentax, I wonder if one of their main advantages to us as consumers (backwards compatability with a load of cheap and good secondhand lenses) means they don't rake in as much money through forcing people to buy new lenses, profit from which can then in turn be recycled into marketing or developing lots of new product. I think in that position, if I was weighing up trying to compete in FF dSLR or hoping to catch a significant market share of the medium format market, I'd have done what Pentax has done.

As you say, will be interesting to see how it all pans out!

Depends on the mood but they include:

John Lees' Barclay James Harvest - Legacy (a live CD and I was there)
Dr John - Trippin' Live (for the same reason)
Bob Dylan - No Mercy
Echo and the Bunnymen - More Songs to Learn and Sing
Elvis Costello - The Man

If you asked me tomorrow it would probably be a different list, but I've liked this lot for a long time.

A look at Google suggests that people don't have universally good things to say. My understanding is that they deal with grey imports, via an impenetrable telephone system. All is fine when it goes well (which I am sure is for the majority of customers), but I think it may be a different story if you are one of the unlucky ones when it doesn't - and the measure of good retailers is in part about how they handle these issues when they arise. I wondered about them recently, but decided I wouldn't risk it for anything of great value.

Hmmm - just watched a 24mm CZJ lens go last night too. Prices went beyond what I thought was sensible, especially given that it's a badge-engineered Sigma Ultrawide II (and none the worse for that, supposed to be a great lens but hardly worth paying huge additional wack for the CZJ badge).

Haven't seen any Pentax adverts in AP for quite a while...I'm sure there is no connection...

They've had a down on Pentax for a while now - Damien Demoulder had a go a few weeks ago in his editorial too.