Hold off until tomorrow and you can see what the standard issue kit of cheap Pentax manual primes is like.

With friends like me, you'll be a full-blown addict before you know!

Hi - keep looking at the classifieds on this forum and good deals often come up. Or alternatively place a wanted ad if you know what you are looking for and see if anyone is interested.

On Friday I will bring with me my "poor man's LBA" kit, including:

Tamron Adaptall 2 24/2.5 (£80 brand new from KEH outlet last month)
Pentax 28mm SMCA (£35 from Ivor Howell in West Norwood)
Pentax 50mm SMCM (£30 from this forum)
Pentax 135 SMCM (£49 from LCE)
Tamron Adaptall 2 90/2.5 (£70 from Fleabay)

For cheap lenses, I would look at the websites of LCEgroup, SRS Microsystems and Ffordes - all of whom offer good mail order service.

LCE on the Strand (near Savoy Hotel) sometimes have some good secondhand stuff but prices can be all over the place. Don't be afraid to bargain if you know that they are pushing their luck! Nice shop with nice staff.

Ivor Howell in Blackheath and Norwood occasionally have Pentax stuff but I would phone first to see what they have - prices generally good.

Nicholas Camera in Camden will have a lot of stuff but is a weird place to say the least, can be somewhat unfriendly, and with prices that need to be haggled.

Mr Cad in Croydon has a good stock of standard Pentax lenses (eg 28/35/50/200/some older zooms) and 2 or 3 times a year tend to have half price sales, which is the best time to pounce. It's a huge shop worth visiting.

Some food for thought?

Look forward to seeing it on Friday - and we can introduce you to the concept of lens buyer's addiction!

Cheers,

Jon

I've seen people using them. I think it depends where you are - near the London Eye can be a problem but I think the further East we go, the less likely it is that there'd be objections.

Saw some people using tripods last week, and I was planning on bringing one.

Cheers,

Jon

Hi - welcome to the forum, and as luck would have it some of us are meeting in London after work on 19th March - see the separate thread on this if you can join us (even if you've not found your K100DS yet!).

Confirmation of details for London evening 19th March - hope you can join us!

Friday 19th, 6.30pm, venue BFI Riverfront Bar (under Waterloo Bridge on the South Bank). For those that dont go often this used to be the National Film Theatre and the bar was the Film Cafe.

Easy mainline access from Waterloo and Waterloo East, nearest tubes Waterloo, Temple, Embankment.

We will wait for an hour or so for people to dribble in and then head off somewhere for nightime pics & pints along the river.

Look forward to meeting up in a few days.

Cheers,

Jon

I wonder whether a split image screen (Katz Eye or similar) may also help? I may be tempted to do that before getting the magnifier, but then I have glasses and find the magnifier is not great when wearing them.

Nice to see it being put to good use. It's a surprisingly good lens, especially for the money. I think it would be a great portrait lens on full frame, but I found it just a little too long for what I wanted on APSC. That said, I got some great shots out of it, even at f1.4 after a while. You're right though - it takes work. Enjoy!

Jon

As an ex Oly E-1 owner, I can also add that many Olympus owners think the original 4/3 cameras with Kodak sensors produced the nicest colours of any of the 4/3 bodies. Noise, sadly, was a different issue with the E-1. If Kodak have managed to work similar magic with this sensor, I'm wondering if it may be capable of astonishing results - in which case, pitching this camera at this price level when compared to the opposition may be quite an interesting move. I wouldn't be surprised if it was more successful than anyone might have predicted.

Excellent - good to see this thread is bumping along without my help now! Will post final details in a week or so, but spent some time around the South Bank on Friday - people may want to turn up a little early if they want to be sure of good sunset shots with decent colour in the sky before the blue disappears. I'll aim to get there by 6 at the latest.