That's certainly a credible arsenal of lenses. Odd that you are french, have a russian nickname, and use italian language in your post.

Do you have an identity crisis ?

Good luck with the lenses.

I raised a similar question some time ago, thinking that a 35mm sensor'd DSLR from Pentax was not too far away given the speed of electronics development. Since then, based upon the opinions of this and other forums (or is it fora?), I have concluded that it is not likely that Pentax will produce a 35mm sensor'd camera as the 645D will provide the bigger sensor for those who need & can afford it.

Also, Pentax and other lens manufacturers have a huge investment in tooling to produce the APS-C (digital only) lenses, not to mention the investment us users have in them too.

And no, I would not pay in excess of £1000.00 to buy one. I'm perfectly happy with the results I am getting from my *istD and like many others here, I'm looking forward to getting my grubby mits on my K10D which is now on order.

Regards,

Removing the front element is simple enough but if you don't use the correct tool you risk damaging it and the filter thread. Treat yourself to a lens spanner/wrench. Worth it's weight in gold. I've just rejuvenated a SMC-Pentax 400mm 1:5.6 lens by cleaning some fungus from the inside of the front element and the outside of the rearmost element. It's as good as new now.

If you look at the edge of the outermost retaining ring on the inside of the filter thread you will see two small notches opposite each other. Using a lens spanner (please don't try and use long-nosed pliers. if you do, tears are inevitable), unscrew it anti-clockwise. When its removed, the front element should drop into your hand. It might need a little gentle persuasion. Clean it with acetone or methanol (Eclipse solution - preferred), and reassemble.

Jobs a good'un.

Note to McBrian: Yes, the 400mm lens did clean up a treat

Cheers,

I concede that technically you are quite correct since 'Limited' lenses are manufactured in a production line environment. That said, the 'Limited' is a reference to Pentax's capability to produce them, not to the optical or mechanical quality of the lens. Their attention to detail (normally) means that the production process is labour intensive rather than using faster robo-mechanical assembly.

Even in this environment there will always be the odd lens built on 'friday afternoon' that slips through the QC net.

Regards,

'Limited' lenses are made in limited numbers and are therefore not 'mass' produced but your analogy is otherwise sound. Even the finest engineered mechanisms can malfunction.

Try http://www.pentax-manuals.com/manuals/accessories/af400ftz.pdf. Password to open is "Pentax", no quotes and case sensitive.

Neutral Density (ND) filters usually come in various shades of grey depending on how dark the effect is that you want. Graduated ND filters as their name suggests are graduated from grey through to no filtering at all to give adjustable results.

I'm not sure ND filters come in other colours but I could be totally wrong.

That's the benefit of digital. Excellent demonstration, thanks.

A Pentax Bellows works well too and incorporates back and forth micro adjustment but not side to side.

Downside is you need a cable release to stop down the lens unless you use it manually or wide open and another cable release for the camera. The double cable release that comes with the bellows is best left in the drawer unless you are using a film camera. Any attached lens will require the camera to be used in manual and stopped down metering. A ringflash is a good investment too. The more light you can throw on to your subject means you can use a smaller aperture with increased DOF.

Secondly, if you go the bellows route on a Pentax DSLR, get a short manual extension tube to fit between bellows and camera to avoid having to take the body mount of of the bellows unit before fitting it to the camera. The bellows will foul the camera body otherwise. There is no point in getting a KA tube because the contacts do nothing. If you already have some of course, use one of them, probably the shortest will do.

If you want to use a micro adjuster other than a bellows unit, Manfrotto make one and Novoflex units are frequently available at reasonable prices. Both excellently engineered products.

On film, luck plays a big part in determining the quality of the resultant shot. Spending ages setting up your gear perfectly counts for nought if your subject is unwilling/restless. With digital, you just keep clicking away until you get a few good ones and bin the duffers. I think digital SLR's are largely responsible for a bit of a renaissance of macro photography because 1 shot or 50,the cost is the same.

I'd like to see Pentax produce a KA Bellows unit one day. With modern flexible printed circuit techniques it ought to be possible to get the contacts from front to back. AF is not particularly necessary either.

Good luck,

The 10x zoom figure is simply the ratio between the minimum and maximum focal lengths that the zoom will cover. IE: Max/Min = 380/38 = 10.

The bigger the zoom ratio, the more the compromise. You will find that the better quality zoom lenses (for sharpness, colour, contrast, and flare control) have a zoom ratio limited to between 2x (12-24) and 4x (80-320). Many are only about 3x (70-210, 24-90, 16-45 etc). The new Sigma 50-500 stretches it to a whopping 10x. I think the Pentax offering having the widest zoom ratio is probably the 28-200 AL IF lens at just over 7x. Many users don't like that particular lens because its a bit soft at the long end but I like it as a general carry about lens.