Jack, I'd be interested to know what was the max focal length on the Bigma did you use on that outing?

When I first started looking for an SLR in the early 80's I wanted a Canon A-1 because it seemed everybody had one.

I thank my lucky stars that I did a little more research and found the Pentax Super-A. A brilliant camera and certainly a match for the A-1.

This is one off the known issues when using older manual diaphragm lenses on Pentax DSLR's. Some people here have improved the problem by changing the focussing screen.

If you search the forum, you should be able to find plenty of info.

I think you'll find that he is selling only the camera body, not the entire contents of his signature.

You are quite right. The Pentax batteries have only two poles. I've had problems with other batteries recently, mobile phone, and Fuji P&S camera. Each of these batteries has three poles. I was confused, apologies.

Maybe that's why the K10/20D batteries have three terminals. One terminal (+ common) could be for the internal battery/capacitor.

Isn't that a nipple bit overexposed . . .

If you are using a zoom lens, the only way of knowing what zoom setting you have is to look at the lens barrel.

After the pic is taken you can check the actual zoom setting using Photome.

Before the days of shake reduction (SR) systems the rule of thumb would be to set the shutter speed to the reciprocal of the lens's focal length.EG: for a 400mm lens you would set a minimum of 1/400th/sec shutter speed.

With SR, things have changed, and you can usually get away with at least 2 stops slower shutter, but whether that is appropriate or not depends entirely on your subject, whether it's moving, and how fast.

Some non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM) requires a large capaacitor to be fully charged for it to retain its data.

I have no clue as to what NVRAM is used in Pentax cameras, but it might just be that, if a capacitor needs to be charged, it'll need a battery to be connected for an extended period of time to achieve its required charge.

My advice: Fully charge a battery, set the time and date, and leave the battery in the camera for at least 24, maybe 48, hours.

Remove the battery for 10 minutes.

Re-insert the battery and check your date/time settings.

If they have reset, return the camera for a replacement or refund.

Simples.

Actually, I could be a bit ahead of you, but . . I'm not as drink as thumb sunkle might peop . . . .