In response to the topic title . . . "Oh no it isn't!". Well somebody had to do it.

I agree with JR's comments about softness and focus, even if it does seem like he's "bassman" reincarnated.

I would not be happy with these images if taken with any dedicated macro lens.

I think part of the problem is lighting. The flower heads look as if they are in their own shade, a reflector would have helped enormously.

Not quite sure what you mean, unless it's the man's face in the hole in the end of the decaying log.

Was that advice from someone who doesn't actually take photos of insects?

With practice you'll be able to manually focus on an insect quicker than most AF systems.

The key is to get the eyes in focus, wherever they are in the fram. Using AF you'll probably need to focus on the eyes and then recompose the shot by moving the camera slightly.

Two things scare insects away, noise (AF system), and movement (recomposing).

Manual focus is the preferred focusing method of most macro photographers for a high percentage of their work, if not 100%.

The advice you have been given is flawed.

There's a Sigma 50/2.8 Macro lens for sale here.

I think you'll be very lucky to find a true macro lens at a price that is within your budget. The closest you'll get is possibly a smc Pentax-M 100mm f4 lens, but you can still expect to pay more than your £100 budget.

Have you considered using a Raynox macro converter?

The Raynox DCR-250 can be bought for about £50 and will fit your 50mm/1.7 lens.

I think the MZ-D never made it into production. Only prototype bodies were taken to shows etc.

The first Pentax DSLR that went into production was the *ist-D in 2003.

I wear varifocals and have no issues other than not being able to see the whole viewfinder frame in the O-ME5 magnifying eyecup due to the distance between eye and viewfinder when wearing glasses.

Thanks for making the effort.

jockey0, do you have another keyboard? The full stop (commonly used to end a sentence) doesn't seem to be working on the one you are using, which makes your posts tiresome to read. Come to think of it, I don't think your shift key is working either (commonly used to start a sentence with a capital letter).

I'm sure you can work that one out for yourself.