Macro photography needs good lighting, either natural, or flash. Your white balance needs to be set according to whichever you choose.

A dedicated macro flash is expensive, either in the form of the Pentax ring flashes, or those with twin flash heads.

An acceptable alternative is any flash that will work with your camera, even if only at full power. You can make the necessary adjustments to the camera to get a good exposure. You may need to fabricate some kind of light tunnel/diffuser, to get the light to your subject.

LED ring lights are also available at very reasonable prices.

For more information about macro-photography for beginners, check out my article here.

You are quite right of course. I meant to say that you can't use Av mode with those lenses.

The MZ-S is a fine camera, with one limitation that I can think of.

You will not be able to use any lenses that have no aperture ring, other than wide open, because the body lacks the facility to set the aperture. Lenses lacking an aperture ring include the FA-J and DA series.

As has been suggested, the Super-A is a fine MF body, but that model lacks any dioptre adjustment.

The MZ-S has TTL, P-TTL and wireless flash functions. I often regret selling mine, not that I used it much, it's just a beautiful piece of engineering to look at and hold. The body is a mag-alloy too so it's incredibly tough.

The *ist was the last 35mm film camera produced by Pentax. I think that the MZ-6 is possibly the best value for money body of the MZ series available at the moment and does just about everything the MZ-S can do, except mirror lockup, and lenses with no aperture ring can also be used with it.

Where i live in Spain we have a number of Chinese Bazaars where they sell just about everything you could think of, and mostly junk.

Our local shop has some man tights in stock. Something like 2000 denier to fit from waist to ankles, and no feet in them. Something like those, if you can get them where you are, might be ideal. Warm enough outside and not to hot indoors.

As others have said, your primary outer clothing should be wind proof, especially the jacket to keep your body core warm, and I don't mean just thick.

You must have skipped the part where he wrote "It seems to be almost, but not totaly stopped by switching SR off."

I've noticed something similar with my K5 recently.

I was taking some long exposure, but hand held shots a few nights ago after dark. Whether SR was on or off, there was an audible buzzing type of noise from within the camera.

One here.

If you downloaded it from Zerene's site, I doubt it.

Katie, you have a PM.

I almost never use 'cheapest' as my sole criteria when buying, especially when it comes to sophisticated electronic items.

For me, proven after sales service is higher on my 'hit list' than price.

You'll have to look long and hard to find better than SRS on both counts.