I have used Asahi Photo (in Brentford) a couple of times and currently have a DA21 lens there for repair. I thoroughly recommend him/them.

Following up my message of15 November I am very pleased to say that Microglobe fulfilled my order for the DA 40mm XS very quickly - it arrived yesterday with all the right bits and pieces. So a new lens for less than £100 - excellent value, hard to beat. My apologies to Microglobe for doubting them.

I thought this was a good deal and have been on the sire and placed an order. However, I am a bit concerned because the order process was a little unusual, there was no print confirmation page and my e-mail address was shown incorrectly. I am wondering if the lens will actually show up,. Will keep you informed.

Hello Jetsam, Is the Da 21 still available?

Sorry for late reading of your ad.

I was finding it difficult to focus manual lens (e.g. M lenses of which I have far too many!) on my K-5IIs so I bought a KPS UMC magnifying eyepiece. This provides 1.3x magnification and is vey easy to fit. The eyecup is about 1.4cms in depth and so creates a protrusion over the LCD viewer. However, for spectacle wearers the cup folds back over itself reducing its depth by about 50%. In practice the extra magnification is well worth while and the quality of the viewfinder image is not degraded. You do, however, have to hunt around the viewfinder to see exactly what is in frame and what is not. Overall this has been a useful buy and I am not thinking of reverting back to the standard viewfinder.

Unfortunately nothing compares favourably with my ME Super viewfinder!

I have a Nikon Coolscan IV ED in full working order. Complete with all the usual gear. Am using an Epson V500 instead.

Thanks for the information. Let's take an example: A current offer on eBay has a new DA 35mm f2.8 macro from Taiwan at £377 (free p&p). That seems likely to be a landed cost of a bit less than £500 compared to the £639 price in UK. Clearly there are other risks but are these calculations correct?

Does anyone know what the import duties are likely to be when importing new and/or used kit from Japan? I see that prices for Ltd lens sourced from Japan on eBay are quite low - presumably reflecting import duties payable in UK.

I have not been able to solve the problem so have decided to cut my losses and return the camera to the seller. Many thanks to those who have looked and commented.

Thanks for the comments. I have been careful to set the F lanes on the A position and indeed have experimented with every manually set aperture. The FAJ has no aperture ring (like the Sigma). Have also cleaned both lenses. A stubborn problem.