Sent a reply. Let me know what you think.

Cheers,

Jon

Excellent example of a great lens that I have owned from new. It's just under two years old, so has gone past the 12 month guarantee period.

The lens will come boxed with all the original bits - caps, hood, case and even the silica gel.

Looking at the lenses I've used over the past year, this one has been under-used and I have other lenses covering the same range that will do what I need. I can't justify leaving it in a case at home so it needs to go to someone who will give it a life!

Optically, the lens is perfect, and cosmetically it is excellent but shows minor signs of use. The most obvious is a small mark on the scale next to the zoom ring - look by the 300mm mark in the photo below, which makes it look worse that it really is. Other than that, I'd say the lens is mint. I've also included a few shots taken with it.

Price within the UK is £175 including Special Delivery but excluding PayPal fees if that's how you choose to pay. A useful £100 cheaper than it will cost new, for a lens that is pretty close to as new condition.

I would prefer to sell within the UK but will consider shipping to EU. In this case, we'd need to check postage and payment must be by PayPal - overseas bank transfers don't always work smoothly!


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A few photos from Botswana.

300mm at f5.8:


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230mm f7.1


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300mm f6.3:


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300mm f8:


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190mm f6.3:


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87mm f7.1:


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300mm f7.1:


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Getting back to where this started, I hadn't realised that Pentax had revamped their site, but have to say that regardless of the comments above, it looks quite good - and a nice indication that may be life in this doomed company yet!

I think the two main reasons for going for K100D over the ist cameras are:

(1) Pentax really got the JPEG processing right in the later cameras - so if your mum isn't going to want to spend her time converting RAW images, the K100D and D Super are about as good as JPEGs got from any 6MP camera (including the highly-regarded Nikon's that used the same sensor)

(2) The inclusion of shake reduction - which is a very nice thing to have

I think the small price difference between the two really makes the K100D a better buy.

The K100D Super (I have one of these) adds in compatability for newer HSM lenses and a dust reduction system, so worth thinking about if you find one.

I don't know how far your budget would stretch, but other good cameras for people who want decent image quality, ease of use, and the ability to control things when they want to include the Pentax Km and K200D.

Any of these would produce nicer photographs than a bridge camera, especially in poor light, but you do lose the convenience of an all in one solution.

I've got one too! Easy to find in decent condition for sensible money. Decent quality and nice and compact. What's not to like?

I used to have the 135 f2.5 SMCK, which has a much better reputation, and is a little sharper wide open, with nicer bokeh. But it's comparatively huge and comes with significant magenta fringing issues. On balance, the SMCM does better for me.

I have far too many of the things (watch out for the classifieds soon...) but my thoughts are:

(1) WR is very nice in the UK
(2) fast is often very useful - so in my case perfect kit often means old MF lenses (mostly primes)
(3) small is beautiful - Bigma is perfect for poseurs!
(4) how a lens deals with out of focus areas/bokeh is just as important to me as how sharp and contrasty it is with the stuff that is in focus.
(5) exception to the rule above - Tamron 500mm SP: best affordable 500mm lens and you just have to learn how to live with it!
(6) I don't get ultrawide angle. I've tried it and failed miserably. I realise this is my issue but nothing wider than 16mm will make my perfect lens list

Combination of all of the above for me means that my perfect collection would include only a few zooms for use "when I have to" and a handful of well-chosen primes because I enjoy using them. Which ones actually make the grade vary from one week to the next!

Interesting - one thing that nobody has mentioned specifically is macro. I reckon the perfect lens collection would include a macro lens. If I was looking secondhand I'd try hard to find a good Tamron Adaptall 2 SP 90/2.5 (the original all metal 52B version that requires TC for true 1:1), simply because the build is awesome and it doubles very well as a portrait lens. If I was looking new, I think any of the Pentax/Tamron/Sigma macro lenses will do very nicely.

When I got first cameras for my kids one of the over-riding factors was how they handled for people with child-sized hands and fingers - the best compact camera in the world will be no good if it is too hard for your son to hold and grip with security. I would therefore err towards something slightly chunky rather than stylishly svelte. I don't know how that translates into Pentax compacts, but this may be a point worth bearing in mind as you look around.

Nice shots - especially like the Tiny Bubbles. Good luck with the next lot - I'll race you to double figures!

Jon

If high ISO is important, I'm not sure the K-7 would necessarily satisfy you. In decent light, I would venture up to around ISO1600 with it (if I had no option), but in poor light I try and keep to a max of 640 or 800 at a pinch. The K20D was a step up from the K10D (although a step back at ISO100), and the K-7 probably has similar levels of noise to the K20D, but handled differently (more hands off approach to luminance).

That said, as Kris noted above, I've seen a thread in DePressing Review where somebody ran an Imaging Resource ISO3200 shot from the K-7 through the latest version of Lightroom, and compared it to the Nikon D300s. The K-7 compared very favourably, so perhaps Lightroom may be the answer. Would be worth trying it with some images from the K10D to see if it makes a difference?