So what's the new purchase ?

So when will you progress to a 'proper' macro lens and do away with those extension tubes?

I can assure you the lens does make a difference. When I tested my lenses on my K10D, I had some front focussing, some back focussing, and only one needed no adjustment.

Actually, that one lens does need adjustment, but it needs two. My DA* 50-135mm lens BF's at 50mm, and FF's at 135mm. Go figure . . . 'cause I can't.

FWIW: I've had to make a +40um adjustment to get acceptable results from all of my lenses.

I wish I could do the same for my *istD but it's debug mode lacks these adjustments.

. . . and you'll need a huge memory card if you want more than a few seconds of resulting video. Based on your 5 shots for HDR * 25 shots for 1 second of video, that's 125 frames you need to shoot plus a whole lot of HDR processing, for just one second of video.

Question: Is it worth it?

I guess you think it must be. Don't forget to post your results here.

PS: You'll probably need a mains power supply too . . .

To put Pentax cameras in perspective, price wise, with the only other camera I know anything about, the Nikon D3 (a neighbour has one):-

The Nikon D3 has something like a 50+ point focussing system and can fire shots at about 9 fps, shake reduction is achieved within the lens making them expensive.

The Pentax has an 11 point focus system and can fire shots at about 3 fps., shake reduction is achieved within the camera body so all lenses, even old ones, benefit.

The Nikon D3 body costs almost £3000.00, the K20D under £700.00.

I know these are not exactly like-for-like cameras, but you pays your money and takes your choice.

Yes you can.

You can set a delay before the timing sequence starts from 00:00'00 - 99:59'59, shutter open duration (simulates 'B' exposure mode) from 00:00'00 - 99:59'59, interval between shots from 00:00'00 - 99:59'59, and number of shots from 0 - 339 and - - (infinite number until you press stop).

Hope that helps.

Yes, I have. It works well as a corded remote trigger. I haven't tried it much with it's timer function but when I tested it when I first bought it, it worked fine.

So before long, you'll have nothing Pentax left, except a dud DS which you refuse to get fixed?

You could start by using a focussing test chart ( http://focustestchart.com/focus21.pdf ) or ( http://regex.info/blog/photo-tech/focus-chart/ ) or ( http://pentaxdslrs.com/newchart.pdf ).

I haven't used it yet but my preference is for the last one as there is only one line of high contrast for the lens to focus on. The others could be wrong as much as the thickness of their centre line.

A tip: Rather than lay the chart flat, and set the camera/lens at 45 degrees. Set the chart to 45 degrees and the camera/lens horizontal. Much easier.

You can use just about any video editing program. I wouldn't normally advocate Microsoft's freebie Movie Maker, but for something this simple, it should suffice.

Just keep in mind that you'll need 25 frames for 1 second of video, unless you show each frame for an extended period of time.

If you load each frame and set it's length to 1/2 second, you'll need 2 frames per second of video.