I can answer #1:

The AF330FTZ is a TTL flash and the *istDS is a TTL/P-TTL enabled camera. The K-M is P-TTL only and the flash will fully discharge unless you can set it's output manually. You'll need a P-TTL flash for your K-M, either the AF360FGZ, AF540FGZ, and there's one other who's model number I can't remember. There are third party flashes from Metz and Sigma that are also P-TTL.

I doubt that there is anything wrong with the camera, you just need to understand it better. Have you read the manual? It would have answered the flash issue for you. There is a list of compatible flash guns in there somewhere.

I did emphasize only to use a single drop.

If any other liquid is to be used it ought to be something like Iso-propyl alcohol (IPA).

It's probably best just to stick with a dry or very slightly damp cloth.

Where might that come from?

As far as I can tell, the metal mount material on both camera and lens is chromium plate, probably on brass or steel.

Thanks for the thought. All is well in the Murcia region so far.

Truth is that in the days of the more mechanical film camera it was more difficult to add functions and features.

As time progressed, more and more electronics were added to make the implementation of these functions more simple and more affordable.

Now we are in the era of almost totally electronic cameras, where functions and features are merely a piece of computer code.

To add more is relatively simple, to remove them is as simple, but why bother?

Just because X/Y/Z camera has this/that/the other function, doesn't mean you have to use it if you don't want to (or don't know how).

It's precisely because modern cameras have all these functions that makes them popular. Witness the rush of some on here to get their hands on a K-7 (almost as much of a rush to send them back it seems).

How many youngsters with money to throw away would buy a DSLR that had only an M setting, a digital K1000 in essence? Not many, if any.

Have you seen the K-M (K2000 in US). Does that not fit your spec?

You've assumed he can read Don .

Beware, some electrical contact cleaners are solvent based and will melt plastic. A drop (and I mean a drop) of WD40 will do no harm.

That'll be Jack.

Just reading this at 1:00 AM and it's a chilly 31 degrees here. High of around 44 today. Problem is, it's nearly 29 degrees inside, and no air con.