I also use the K100DS but only lightly. I've never had issues with lithium batteries and generally try and find cheap CRV3s (eg from EBay) as they seem to last for a very long time. Sorry to hear about your problems and hope you find a solution.

I'd go for a 24mm f3.5 (no need for a wide angle lens to be particularly fast), agree with your suggestion of the 28mm, see no harm in a cheap nifty fifty and struggle beyond that.

At longer lengths, I still think Pentax need a (semi) affordable zoom that goes beyond the 55-300. A reworked version of the Tokina 80-400 would add something desperately missing from the Pentax lens range, and I suspect would be likely to sell in larger numbers than long primes.

I wouldn't go for filters first, except possibly ND Grads if you know you will be doing a lot of landscape photography.

If the latter, I highly recommend the HiTech filters that can be bought in a set, with the adapter/holder from Teamwork Photo (mail order pro dealer in London) and are a good compromise between decent quality and affordability. Their mail order service is very quick and reliable.

With the kit lenses I probably wouldn't bother with a UV filter, but could be persuaded for the telephoto lens more than the 18-55, simply in order to protect the front element of the more expensive lens.

However, if you have the DA-L kit lenses without lens hoods, I do think I would prioritise buying hoods above buying filters. Not only will this help protect the lens when you are walking around, but they will also help to improve contrast on sunnier days.

I do have polarisers but don't use them anywhere as much as I thought I would before I got them.

Depending upon what you want to photograph, my other priorities would be either or both of a reasonable flash gun and a tripod. You could do worse than advertising in the classifieds here to see if anyone has tripods/flashguns they would like to sell - it might halve the price compared to buying new.

If long exposures (eg night time) might feature in your photography, you can make do easily enough by putting the camera on self timer, but as noted by Alan above, a remote control can be very handy - and they are not terribly expensive.

Hope this helps,

Jon

It's a shame - the Voigtlanders were a nice and affordable high quality alternative to the Limiteds. But I think a lot of Pentax owners are loyal to Pentax primes so perhaps the appeal of the MF only Voigtlanders rather than DA/FA Limited was quite, well, limited.

As a GF-1 owner, I already use my PKA Voigtlander Ultron as a great fast portrait prime on m4/3 - and I do hope that they produce some more primes for that format. They really are lovely lenses.

At the end of the day, I guess they will make products if there is a market for them. They tried Pentax, didn't sell enough, and have stopped. Seems like a sensible decision, even if it's sad for us.

They were excellent, especially given they clearly missed having Woolly on stage with them. The response of the audience was amazing - most people singing along to almost every song - and two hours disappeared very quickly. It's nice to see an old band like this go out simply because they want to, rather than because it's part of a huge commercial enterprise.

I agree with your comments about the pictures (although the colours are pretty close to what it was like on the night). A few contributory factors:

(1) I had accidently knocked the AF/MF switch on my Sigma 50-150 lens (none of my other lenses have this) and couldn't work out why it wasn't focussing! Grrr! So they were all manual focus at wide aperture in rubbish light.

(2) I was closest to John Lees so it was easier to get a sharp shot of him!

(3) the black and white JPEGs from the GF-1 are outstanding (I have a pile more of them from the gig) and I now routinely set the camera to Raw+JPEG with dynamic B&W - that way I get the best of both worlds but often don't bother to do anything with the RAW file once I've seen the JPEG B&W.

Thanks John.

Managed to get a photo pass for John Lees' Barclay James Harvest at a small venue in London last Friday. Why the Pentaxians of Rock? Well...

(1) many people think they're dead
(2) people who know they're not still think they live on their past glories
(3) they're far more capable than the nay-sayers would have you believe
(4) understated, capable and on occasion exquisite...

On this occasion they had to triumph out of adversity because their main keyboard player - original band member Woolly Wolstenholme - was admitted to hospital just before their mini-tour began. So a five piece band became a four piece band and the show remained on the road. A few shots using the K-7 with Sigma 50-150:

First up and looking distinctly worried is keyboard player Jez Smith, who worked double time to keep the show going:


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He was awarded a "Rick Wakeman" award at the end of the show. Apparently he is a banker normally (Barclays, perhaps?).

Second is Craig Fletcher - who had to fill in for Woolly's legendary sense of (appalling) humour, and did so with remarkable ease. A future career on the northern comedy circuit beckons....





Drummer for the past decade or so has been Kev Whitehead. I remembered to get a photo of him during my allotted first three songs before the SLR had to be put away - not the best of photos, but he was way back in the shadows so he's lucky I got one at all....





Finally, founder member and lead guitarist John Lees, who plays and sings beautifully but it's almost impossible to get a shot with him looking at you! Here he is singing one of their more famous songs - "Child of the Universe":





After this lot, the K-7 had to go away but I did use my Lumix GF-1 with 20mm pancake for a few shots later on. As this is a Pentax forum I know it's not the done thing to post shots from another camera - but just to show them all together, here is a black and white JPEG straight out of the box:





So, after my first attempt at a gig with decent equipment I have to say that it's pretty hard work! Perhaps a band that is a little more "dynamic" on stage may have made my life easier in terms of getting interesting shots, but even getting the technical stuff right is quite a challenge... fun though.

Hope this lot was of some interest.

Jon

Couldn't agree more - I have the Sigma 30/1.4 and the FA35/2 - similar focal lengths but used for entirely different purposes. I'm delighted with both.

Thanks for the additional info Stefan - I usually shoot RAW so probably best just to stick with that - it's just there may be some requirement from others for fairly instant gratification - hence wondering about RAW+JPEG!

Batteries charged and USER settings sorted so I'm ready to go. I've settled on 50-150 f2.8, 16-45 (which I'm not sure will get used) and my Panny GF1 with 20/1.7 pancake lens just for fun.

Cheers,

Jon

I've used the WR kit lenses in pretty heavy rain without problem. However, if I have extended them, if I have the opportunity I do try and dry the barrels before zooming back in. This may, of course, be utterly pointless - but such compulsions keep me happy!