mattp, you can be assured that those of us who like to deal with SRS do so for good reason.

My personal experience is with a DA* 16-50mm lens which they have replaced twice due to well documented focussing issues, without question.

SRS has helpful and knowledgeable staff and they sell the products we like at prices we like. On the rare occasions that there is a problem with a purchase, they sort it, as they did in your case.

Your perceived experience was different based upon your expectations and, dare I say, impatience. I'm sure your refund would have been dealt with soon enough for most of us.

Companies like SRS cannot possibly please all of their customers all of the time. Enjoy your shopping experiences at Curry's and Jessops, just don't expect much in the way of informed opinion from either of them.

EDIT: Following on from your previous post, we all need to grow up at some point. When the time is right for you, you'll be welcome back. When circumstances dictate, we can be a forgiving bunch, but you might have to grovel a bit

I have an older Seagate 200Gb drive, a Freecom 250Gb drive, and a Western Digital 1Tb MyBook.

Of the three, I would recommend the Western Digital product. The Seagate (not the same model you mention) has a press button power switch and it always defaults to power off which is why I like it the least.

The freecom is perhaps the most portable as it's the smallest of the three.

IMHO, the best of all solutions is an external NAS RAID system. I chose a 1Tb Netgear ReadyNAS product and use the 1Tb Mybook and 250Gb Freecom disks for unattended backup.

The price alone should answer your question.

Have a look at the Raynox Macro lenses. They clip onto the front of standard lens and produce some very good results.

I've asked myself that question many times John.

The only mechanical cause I can think of is that we didn't have shake/dust reduction on film SLR's. Unless materials, design, production tolerances, and/or quality control of modern lenses are to blame. Then again the FA 50mm 1.4 that Nathan is having trouble with is relatively 'old school' as far as those criteria are concerned.

Similarly the only optical cause I can think of is perhaps internal reflections that 'confuse' the AF system.

I haven't heard/read of anybody having issues when using MF either, only AF.

It would be good to know if those Pentax/Nikon/Canon/Olympus/Sony DSLR cameras that don't have these facilities suffer from the same issue and is it lens dependant.

I think Nikon include AF adjustment in one or more of their bodies too so the problem is not limited to Pentax/Samsung hardware.

I'm sure that the 35mm lens produces some excellent results but for me, that FL is too short for macro work. It's probably very good for static subjects like jewellery, coins, models etc, but for living subjects you'd need to get very close which often means no more subject.

The SMC Pentax F/FA 100mm 1:2.8 macro lenses are superb and the Sigma 150/180mm macro lenses increase the distance from wary/dangerous subjects even further.

I've said before that my holy grail is the SMC Pentax-A 200mm macro lens, but I've given up on that and bought the Sigma 180mm 1:3.5 instead. It also fills the telephoto gap between my DA* 50-135mm and the DA* 300mm.

There's a clue in the topic title.

I think what's needed is a wireless receiver attached to the jack socket (cable release) and a wireless (radio) transmitter trigger.

Nope, I ain't seen one of those . . . though Don would probably make you one for a bottle of Bowmore.

EDIT 1: I just found this, which might work. The Canon cable release works with Pentax so maybe this does as well.
EDIT 2: I found this too.

Pleasant dreams . . . 50mm . . . FF . . .why why why why . . . .

Seriously, if you get the same result with 2 X K10D bodies, it must be something to do with the lens, not the cameras mirror, prism, or focus screen.

Anything is possible with complicated mechanical systems Nathan, but I can't think of a reason why only one lens would be affected. It's also possible that something within the lens is moving.

This may sound daft, but can you hear/feel anything move if you shake the lens (gently of course)?

Try http://focustestchart.com/focus21.pdf or http://regex.info/blog/photo-tech/focus-chart/ or http://pentaxdslrs.com/newchart.pdf

Are you using auto or manual focus in your testing?
Have you tried both methods?
If you test using both AF and MF, do you get the same result?
Does the lens in question focus to infinity correctly?

As far as I know (and I'm willing to be corrected) the available adjustment affects AF accuracy only. MF should be good every time because you set the focus point yourself, verify it in the viewfinder, and take the shot.

There would be no point making the adjustment for just one lens on a K10D because it'll affect all lenses.

The K20D can hold settings for 20 lenses and having that capability built in demonstrates that it is a recognised problem.