I liked it with longer lenses - the Tamron 90 became a 180mm macro lens, and the SMC-K 135 became a 270 f2.5. It was fun!

Just to confim the adapter is on its way to new owner.

Cheers,

Jon

Hi there,

I went on safari trip to Botswana earlier this year and took the K20D: very happy with it.

I currently have the 18-250 (Tamron flavour) which is very good at what it does, but I wouldn't take it on a safari - you don't want to come home with pictures that could have been stunners "if only....". I would take it to Miami though as a one lens fits all solution that gets the superzoom compromises about as good as they get.

I took the 55-300, which was good and has nice IQ but sometimes irritated by being slow to focus at the longer lengths (may be better on K-7) and there are occasions when 300mm is not enough. I missed some shots because of the slow focussing with this lens. I'd take it on safari again if I had to, but wouldn't be thrilled to do so.

I also took an old secondhand Tamron 500mm mirror lens, which I ended up using more than the 55-300. Mirror lenses have their issues (which would require a whole other thread) but when used with care can produce very nice results. A good Tamron should be around £100 possibly less - incredible bang for the buck and also small and portable. They require a lot of practice though, otherwise I guarantee you will be unimpressed with the results.

On safari, the lenses you mostly need are "long" and "longer". For this reason I would not bother with the 50-200 (although if the kit is priced well, it may still be worth picking up as a reasonable and very compact WR zoom for other purposes when you are not in Africa. I think the twin lens WR kit sounds pretty compelling for the Matterhorn trip!)

If I was going on safari again and could justify getting new lenses, I would love to take the DA* 60-250 and a 2X teleconverter (a combination that I suspect would comfortably outperform the Tamron mirror, and is certainly a much more flexible option) but with recent price rises I'm not sure I could justify it.

So I would look instead at two cheaper and recently introduced Sigma options - either the 120-400 or 150-500. I see some advantages of using these lenses on safari anyway as they are significantly longer than the 60-250 which as I mentioned before, is often what you'll want on safari.

I think the suggestion of a 17-70 is also a very good one as it covers a very useful range (I have the Sigma which I'm very happy with and keeps the cost down a little). The 18-55 would be perfectly serviceable in Africa though - for the occasional landscape and hopefully frequent spectacular sunset.

I would strongly recommend taking a monopod on safari - mine was invaluable and I used it often by bracing it on the floor of the Land Rovers when on game drives (I kept AS switched on). I took a beanbag too, but in the vehicles we were in, it was pointless and remained unused.

The monthly mags will all advise that you should take a polariser. I did, used it a little, didn't like what I saw, and stuffed it back where it belonged in my camera bag. The results without the polariser were much closer to what I actually saw.

If you happen to have run Pentax and Four Thirds systems, I have a surplus and almost unused Fotodiox adapter that will enable use of PK lenses on Olympus or Panasonic dSLRs (not micro four thirds).

Lenses need to have an aperture ring as the adapter does not allow any communication to the camera body. But it's fun, for example, to turn that old 200 SMC M into a compact 400mm f4 lens!

I used it with on Oly E-1 and have to say the Oly metering was a good deal more accurate with legacy glass than the newer Pentax bodies. The adapter is quite well made - I would happily use it with most lenses, but would think carefully about using something really heavy - at least not unless the lens was supported rather than the camera body.

I'm happy to send it 1st class post to anyone who wants it - but would be particularly keen to send it to someone prepared to make what they think is a reasonable donation to a charity of their choice.

They also have a GX10 for £199 for people desperate to track down a K10D.

Will pick up a copy on Tuesday. I think AP produces some of the best and most reliable reviews available, certainly the best ones I've seen in print. I think they've also generally been very fair in their assessment of Pentax products.

For £30 it's got to be worth it!

I've pre-ordered a K-7 and am hopeful it will prove to be a good replacement for my Oly E-1 which went to a new home a couple of weeks ago. I'm looking forward to a camera that handles well and quickly, but with discretion and without the bulk of most higher end bodies. Smaller means it'll get used more as far as I'm concerned. 100% VF (E-1 also had one) also a major attraction.

One other thing I've pre-ordered is a battery and don't know if others have done the same - learning from the experience of a colleague who bought 5D mk 2 and has been searching ever since for a spare battery: they're like gold dust, and they cost almost as much too!

One slightly different question from me, and not sure it's one you can answer!

Did the camera come with the new WR kit lens for you to try too? If so, I'd be interested in your views about how it compares to the current (DA AL II) kit lens. The photos in other places on the web are not massively encouraging but may well reflect poor technique (and Ephotozine mostly shot wide open which won't help show what the lens can do)and/or softness resulting from down-sizing for the web.

I'm assuming that CA and vignetting are likely to be about the same in the new lens, but would appreciate thoughts on whether contrast, sharpness and colour compare well with the DA AL II which all in all is quite a decent performer. If it's as good, I'd be tempted to buy one, but if the IQ appears to have suffered in the new WR variant I may think twice.

I notice from your profile that you might not have the current incarnation of the kit lens, but perhaps someone else can bring one on Saturday!

Thanks for all that you're posting in here - it's interesting reading.

Won't comment on the price of the camera, but can tell you that I never used the software that came with my K20D (nor that which came with other cameras). I use Photoshop Elements which does most things well and intuitively. It's well worth the c£60. For more money, people swear by packages such as Lightroom, which I suspect would make batch processing of RAW files much easier than either Elements or the bundled Pentax software. But it's not cheap.

Conclusion - I wouldn't let lack of CDs stop me from buying a camera - other than the fact that it perhaps says something about the owner that they haven't kept them all safe and sound in the kind of compulsive way that I do?!

Now why does this post get more responses after I sell the camera than before?!

For the record - since Spotmatic and then MX though various dSLRs I've always found my Pentax kit to be robust and reliable. Lenses too (even the 50-135 so far). Hope it continues....