Is that what's known as a politician's answer?
Well... maybe minus the VAT

At that price I'll have one
Matt

The fact you can get a Sandisk Extreme III 2Gb SD card with a free Capture One LE license for £17.90 from picstop.co.uk - there's no excuse not to use a decent RAW convertor

Thanks for the info Peter
Think I have 'em all now... Silkypix (still preferred), C1LE, Lightroom, and ACR

Must do some tests someday...

Matt

The big trouble with going digital is that you take on the process of capturing, developing, artistic control and printing. It's quite a lot to master

One main thing to bear in mind - digital is much like slide film in terms of exposure - but there's a lot you can do after the capture. Best thing is, once you get hold of the K10D, to slam through a few hundred shots and just get the feel of it all.

There's plenty of guides out there on the 'net, and there's many suggestions here on this forum
Matt

I quite agree. The Pentax 12-24 is the same. Having used the 16-45 extensively it was pretty easy to frame landscapes. Using the 12-24 requires a lot more care and work, and often it's easier to use the 16-24mm range anyway. If you're not very careful you end up with just a wider shot with not much of interest in the foreground.
Matt

FWIW, here's some interesting and useful links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisheye_lens
http://www.fisheyelens.de/index_e.html (mostly German)
http://wiki.panotools.org/Fisheye_Projection
http://www.a1.nl/phomepag/markerink/fishyfaq.htm

Some Pentax images:
http://www.pentax.de/_de/photo/lenses/index.php?gruppe=41&artikel_nr=21580 (see at the bottom "Downloads"

HTH!
Matt

There are two things that make a super wide vignette with Cokin P filters... and this is what you do (in true Blue Peter style ):

* We tried hacksawing off the front two slots so you have just the polariser and one slot let. It's better.

* It appears that the inside edge of the filter holder is visible in the corners, so get out a file and make 'em more square. No probs

This has worked well with a Cokin P, Sigma 10-20 and Canon 20D. I used a hacked Cokin P with the Pentax 12-24 and *ist-D for a while, but ended up with the Lee+Cokin Z. Better quality filters and a much nicer system, but stupidly expensive really

Actually, Cokin now do a wide angle holder for the P filters. It'll stop some of the problems - http://www.cokin.com/ico6-WIDE-ANGLE-HOLDER.html

HTH!
Matt

This Pentax fisheye has a much wide angle of view - up to a massive 180 degrees. Because of that you can't use filters at all (though the Sigma will require either a modified Cokin P holder, or a set of Lee filters).

The Sigma is a rectilinear zoom.

Both distort what you would consider a "normal" view, but a rectilinear is more suited to landscape work.

Hope that helps!
Matt

Wow!

I hope they don't get overloaded!!!!

Matt

Not as far as I know

I seem to remember (it was a looong time ago), I had a Tokina lens that would work manually on my Z1 but not on an MZ5 - bizarre! (I did wonder if there are mechanisms for reading through the contacts digitally, but I can only find evidence for the aperture being read through the "finger".
Not that it helps....

There's quite a bit of K-mount info on: http://www.bdimitrov.de/kmp/

Matt

The issue about whether the aperture is displayed in the viewfinder is as follows:

* If you select the aperture manually from the camera with the lens aperture ring in the "A" position - the f-stop will be shown.

* If you manually select the aperture from the lens, then older bodies will display the aperture. Newer bodies (including dSLRs) cannot display the aperture.

On the original KAF mount the select aperture was sent to the body by a mechanical "finger". The body would detect the position of this "finger" and linked it into the exposure system.
Some of the 35mm cameras had this linkage (my old MZ-5 and Z1 both had this) and could display the information.

On the new "crippled mount" bodies, this mechanical linkage is not fitted and consequently the body has absolutely no way of knowing where the aperture ring is. It's physically impossible.

...but then most of those bodies allowed selection of the aperture from the body - at least for A, F and FA lenses.

HTH!
Matt