Grip arrived quickly in perfect condition. Thanks for great transaction Keir. Jon

Unless you need the WR (in Portugal?) or SDM autofocus I'm not sure I'd make the change fom your Tamron, at least not on image quality grounds. The 17-50 is an outstanding bargain and performs well beyond its price point. It does have a reputation for front/back focus issues which many Pentax bodies can be set to correct. Very oddly, I needed to do this when I used my copy on K-5, but it appears unnecessary on K-5iiS. I don't understand this, but implies to me that the publicised focus issues with this lens may not be just down to the lens....

In support, I love my Katzeye screen. Brilliant for manual focus in particular. Optibrite treatment works really well too. Combine with the OME 53 to transform your viewfinder! If I didn't have one already I'd buy this.....they're a lot more expensive new.

Thanks to John 7avensis7, now happy owner of lovely K-5iiS. Great seller, highly recommended.

Jon

Done - will send you a pm. Jon

Found! Can't wait for it to arrive......

If you have a mint low mileage K-5IIs, boxed with all of its original bits, and are looking for a good excuse, sorry, reason, to buy the K-3 (or do the whole FF thing....) then please let me know. I'm looking for a great example but really only in the market for body only.

Many thanks,

Jon

Hi Gary - thanks and should we say that ageing musicians who either sit and play or stand and play without lots of drama don't make for fab photos anyway?! And John Lees' white hair under stage lighting is a nightmare for blown highlights even in raw files that were deliberately underexposed!!

Got a photo pass and grabbed a few photos at a gig in Islington on Friday night. I was travelling light so only had space for K-5 plus 35-105 SMCA. Could have done with a longer and faster AF lens, but I knew that...

I took most of the shots at ISO3200, which is quite a lot higher than I normally venture, but I was quite happy with the results. Had I used a faster AF lens, they would have been better (and I was surprised to see how many lens aberrations I was getting from my "stack of primes").

So here are a few shots:

Suport came from Gordon Giltrap and Oliver Wakeman (Yes, he does look just like his dad.....), with Paul Manzi appearing for a couple of songs:










Headliners were the Saddleworth-based John Lees' Barclay James Harvest, who are so much better now they have stripped down their sound and just want to have fun in smaller venues:













Good fun night out and some outstanding musicianship.

Cheers,

Jon

I think I'd distinguish between manual and auto focus. So the line gets drawn after SMCA? Jon