My lens suggestion would be a DA* 16-50mm 1:2.8, a DA* 50-135mm 1:2.8, and possibly a DA 12-24mm 1:4 or similar for the wide group shots. I doubt you'll need any thing wider or longer, but f2.8 might be a bit limiting in low light, like inside a church. In this case, a fast prime would be required if flash is not an option.

You'd also need a flash and diffuser. For those, I recommend the Pentax AF540FGZ flash fitted with a Stofen Omnibounce diffuser.

A spare body would be a must, as are extra batteries and memory cards.

I'll leave others to comment on studio gear because I have very little experience of it.

I have no M42 lenses in my collection.

I had a SMC Pentax/Takumar 35mm lens in M42 mount once but I couldn't handle the messing about with the adapter and/or manual focusing the thing.

Frankly, I couldn't see the point. I personally doubt that IQ is any better/worse than modern day lenses. The only possible attraction I could come up with was cost.

Whilst I have a few of the better quality primes in my collection, they rarely see the light of day because I will almost always prefer the convenience of a zoom lens.

EG: I am marshaling at a banger race meeting in Cartagena tonight where I also double as duty 'tog. I'm taking 2 x bodies + 2 x lenses. DA* 50-135mm for the cars (I get close to the action) on my K5, and my DA* 16-50mm + AF540FGZ flash on my K20D for portraits of the winners. I'm not taking any primes with me.

We know, you told us here.

There is no need to tell us twice.

I think that makes for a much better image.

Colour cast has gone, crop is just about spot on. I guess you could widen it a bit to make it more pleasing to you and bring in some more of those leaves from the right.

Perhaps you could try increasing the contrast of the background that remains.

Something . . . (can't do fanfares)

Well done for selling it and you can probably be happy in the knowledge that it'll get some use now.

That's a lovely image. Can I suggest you crop away most of the emptiness on the left, and cut a bit more of the tail off. Perhaps even crop it to portrait orientation.

Is it just me, or does it have a slight magenta cast to it?

The APO version of the Sigma 70-300mm lens is a great performer, as evidenced by your photo.

I sold mine to fund my DA* 60-250mm, which is even better.

Keeping lenses in empty shoe boxes is not such a good idea for the same reason as using leather lens pouches.

If the shoe box once contained leather shoes, it probably contains a significant number of fungal spores from the leather.

All of the 100mm Macro lenses are reasonably quick to focus, but all can suffer from hunting if the subject is of low contrast/dynamic range.

Given the increased travel of focussing a macro lens, this can be a real pain.

Yes it does, as did LR3.