Hi Nathan - giving it serious thought. Have bought stuff in the States before (grip, couple of lenses) but generally from Amazon when the prices have been good. However I'm not expecting to be there until October this year, and there are no immediate plans for people to be coming over here.

B&H will ship though, and quote to include all the taxes and charges in their price so there's no additional fee to pay once it is delivered.

The wildcard is a secondhand lens at a dealer over here. It is well-priced but I know it is cosmetically not in mint condition. I'm sort of thinking that might make it very difficult to sell on at a future date (not intending to, but you never know), as people willing to spend FA Limited money will probably want their lens to be as close to "as new" as possible...

Given people are sometimes keen to complain, I thought it might be nice to note that my K-7, which was posted to SRS for repair on 4 January, has returned to them in just over 2½ weeks.

I know that Johnsons were closed over the Christmas period, followed by the snow, and it sounds like they did quite a lot (new PCB and other stuff as well as general clean and service plus updated firmware etc). Don't ask - my camera really wasn't very well over Christmas!

All in all, I don't think that I've had to wait excessively long, and as long as the problems are indeed solved (will only know when I get it), I'd say that I'm happy. I know people complained when Pentax moved its service, but Johnsons are used by other big manufacturers too - maybe they know what they're doing.........

SRS, as you would probably expect, were also good at keeping me informed and doing a bit of prodding this week.

Will post again once I know all is working, but if others are dreading warrantee repair worries, I'd suggest that things may work out better than you fear!

You guys aren't helping!

PS - anyone imported from B&H Photovideo. I know who they are, and trust them, but wondered what real experience is like? New from them, including tax, duties and postage costs about the same as a mint secondhand lens over here, which has left me pondering.....

Thanks for these generous offers guys! It could take me some time to respond....

Not at 20% more than the price SRS are charging for a new one!

Thanks Kris - I think the mostly likely market may be people who have decided to switch systems, but let's see what happens!....

Only lenses in really good condition need apply... black or silver is fine as long as they are in great shape and boxed with all the bits they came with. Prepared to pay a sensible price for the right lens.

Best wishes,

Jon

Are you prepared to buy secondhand?

If so I would suggest a three lens set up!

(1) SMC FA 20mm f2.8 - there are two for sale at Ffordes currently. I have not used this lens, but it is very highly rated. Alternatively you could get the DA 21 Ltd - smaller but I think the FA is considered to be the better performer

(2) Either the DA 35 or the FA 35 (f2 so good for low light). I am thinking of putting an FA 35 in very good (boxed) condition up for sale so PM me if you may be interested

(3) DA 70 Ltd - tiny and superb

Enjoy considering all the possibilities!

Jon

One option that I have used for a while is to switch on automatic horizon correction but leave off the level in the viewfinder and on the top LCD. I'd rather use that for exposure information. Seems to work quite well this way, although I've since stopped using the auto correction too - now I only have myself to blame!....

I've got my serial number. And I know it was received and sent on by SRS so I'm hoping that if necessary they will be able to do some nagging on my behalf (it's a warranty repair).