Your first misconception (you are not alone).

The beep and red square in the viewfinder do not indicate correct focus. They indicate only that a focus point has been selected.

The one and only electronic indication that a lens is correctly focussed on the selected focus point is the green hexagon in the bottom of the viewfinder.

Your eyes are the only other non-electronic confirmation of correct focus.

Firstly, have you adjusted the dioptre correctly?

If not, remove the lens. If you have a transparent/translucent body cap, put it on the camera. Point the camera at a bright light source other than the sun. Adjust the dioptre until the framing marks on the focussing screen are sharp.

Remove the body cap and refit the lens.

Take your test shots in natural light, not artificial indoor lighting.

If you think your images are still back/front focussing, consult your manual to make the necessary AF adjustments.

I have two of them gathering dust as I have no M42 lenses and have no plans to buy any. They are not original Pentax but very, very good copies that include the spanner to remove them.

They have the following text printed on the face of them:- "BOWER M42 PENTAX K/M JAPAN".

I've used them with a couple of M42 lenses that I have since sold, but they do fit flush to the K mount surface and focus correctly at infinity.

If you can wait until the end of March, my wife can bring them back and post them. Posting them from Spain makes them quite expensive.

I paid £20 apiece for them plus postage. I'll happily let them go for £15.00 each including cheap postage from UK (and to a UK mainland address) in late March/early April.

That's rather beautiful. Well done.

Not red Thora, boring green I'm afraid, and I've got a lot more fence left than I have paint to finish it.

The pose and composition are very good. I think the image could be improved a lot with a little PP work though.

I hope you don't mind. I may have overdone the sharpening but I think you can see how much punchier it could look.

The original RAW would produce something very acceptable IMHO.

Reprocessed in Lightroom 3.3, tweaked contrast, clarity, saturation, vibrance, levels, sharpening, noise reduction.

No, but some of the people around here glow in the dark.

A very nice series Mike.

Any of the top names like Gitzo, Manfrotto (Bogen), etc. will have a carbon fibre offering, which I'd suggest is the way to go given that weight is a major consideration for you.

At less than £110.00 for the whole bundle (using the 15% discount from Steve's link) its a steal. I just bought it.

Thanks for the link Steve, and Gwyn for raising the topic..