Another vote for the Voigtlander Nokton 58mmlens - it's a stunner:





Jon

I'd second HiTech filters. I bought mine from Teamwork Photo, and the service was excellent. They also do deals if you buy sets of ND grads and ND filters.

Incidentally, the HiTech holder is in my view worth spending the money on but at the end of the day, the cheaper Kood and Cokin ones still do the job adequately and save lots of £££.

For the Sigma 17-70 you could have got away with the P series filter size (85mm), but I suspect you are pushing your luck too far with the 10-20, so probably have to go for the 100mm filters. You could ask whether the 85mm filters might work in the wide angle filter holder though (specially designed to avoid vignetting with wide angle lenses).

Following the comment above, if your M series lenses are small ones with 49mm filters, I suspect that the 100mm ND Grads may not work terribly well, as they are designed for much larger lenses.

I agree about the build quality - the thing looks neat, feels tightly put together, and the engineering plastics match the magnesium body of the K-7 very well. Nicest thing compared to other manufacturers (with the honourable exception of Olympus) is that it has a proper focus ring rather than a bit of knurling at the end of the lens barrel.

As for IQ, my first copy of this lens was a bit of a disappointment to be honest, but SRS swapped it for another which is playing in a completely different league. The second copy matches my DA AL II (which I always rated) for performance so I'm happy.

I guess it's down to sample variation - and if my second copy is indicative of what they should be like, it's a great lens.

Many of the SMC-M lenses can be found below £50 and the 50/1.7 must rank as one of the best c£30 bargains out there. The 35/2.8 is a nice lens too, but harder to track down. 135/3.5 is a great lens for the money and often can be found in excellent condition for £50 or less.

Sometimes you just have to keep your eyes open and be lucky. This weekend I picked up an almost mint Tamron Adaptall 200/3.5 complete with PK adapter for £35 after spotting it in local camera shop window. I'm very impressed with how sharp it is, even wide open. Colours are perhaps not quite as nice as the Pentax 200/4, but stick a PKA adapter on it and the lens becomes much more usable on a new body. Given the adapter it came with could probably sell for £15, I paid £20 for the lens - a result methinks.

PS - the WR is weather resistant which is not an issue with the K100D, but useful if you borrow it for the K10D!

Ah! - my son (age 12) has also inherited my K100D, which he mostly uses with the kit lens. I find that he often wants to take photographs of things (mostly our pets) indoors in the worst possible lighting conditions, which makes providing him with cheap low light lens options is a struggle!

I have the 50-200 ED WR lens - despite all that I wrote above(!) - and am very happy with it. If you can find one at a decent price, I think it performs more than adequately, is nicely put together and has the advantage of being very compact.

The advantages over the DAL lens, which I think is optically identical, will be that it comes with a lens hood (keeps your son's fingers from smearing all over the lens!), has quick shift focus, which means you can make manual adjustments to the focus even when the lens is in autofocus mode (very helpful) and has a metal mount. Oh - and the WR lens looks nicer too!

The main reason for you to discount the 50-200 is that you already have the Tamron 70-300 - which is a pretty decent sharp lens that will outperform the 50-200 probably from around 150mm onwards and also gives you a reasonable macro capability.

The reason to make the change to the 50-200 would be if you (a) want a much more compact lens or (b) want one that has less purple fringing. Some people don't love the colours that come out of the Tamron either - a little cool compared to the Pentax.

I have no experience of the other lens so others will need to advise. I suspect, though, that it is unlikely to perform better than your kit lens and Tamron combination.

Of the images starting this thread, "Blown Out" is by some margin my favourite. It's a strong composition with lots to interest the eye - it makes me wander around the frame to look at the various details, and it's a memorable picture.

I find PPG really hard to predict. They've accepted some of what I thought were my weaker entries, and rejected ones that I really liked. It seems to me to sometimes veer towards the safe and conventional. And I am now tempted to reject all shots of butterflies... and slow shutter speed waterfalls... and seacapes with three rocks or a jetty in the foreground... or black and white shots with one element left in colour.

... but then given that everything has been photographed before, you could end up rejecting the whole lot simply because it's not original, so I think I'm being a bit mean about the whole thing. I vote yes on the photographs that make me react, and that don't have obvious technical faults (eg blurry) or clear over-production (eg too sharp!).

Much as I really like the 6MP cameras (and my kids now have my K100D), I think I'd struggle to spend that kind of money to have one repaired. Given you have the *istDS, I think I'd keep that and reflect on whether to get something else.

For me, there are a number of reasons which may make a newer camera worth considering, most obviously shake reduction (which probably explains the difference in battery life?). Increased MP comes a long way down the list unless you want to crop lots or print huge.

If you don't want to go for the much larger K10D/K20D bodies, I always thought the K200D was an unsung hero of the more recent cameras, if you can find someone willing to part with one. Very nicely specified, competent, well made, decent handling, compact and weather-sealed. I think it would feel like an upgrade from the K100D, and would be worth spending a bit more on than the repair cost of your existing camera.

Sorry this has happened........

PM sent for 28/3.5