Both great but the first clinches it because of they way the bird is looking back towards the camera, clearly never having seen such a big Pentax lens before.

Lovely shiny blues, sharpness and nice compo all come together winningly ... Fantastic Alan!

I love the last one, a beautiful sweeping view. What was the lens and focal length? And could we see it in colour also?

The 2nd to last is odd with that rather extreme halo. Its good to go back and work through older shots... Digital now means they can be processed and come out looking like new!

Must have been a whistlestop tour he took you on there, looks like it was all just a blur !!

I think your ICM is very reminiscent of some Italian art and images from the area, so entirely appropriate and very effective. It could even form the template for a new photoshop effect ... 'Tuscan Gaussian Blur' !

Excellent one there Steve, with great complementary colours .

The Samyang 10mm review is up over at Pentaxforums . Looking very good, they say it doesn't disappoint in the IQ department, which appears to be a match for the highly regarded 14mm in their range.

Main difference I noted is that it is APS-C only (14mm is FF) and a bit more plastic in the construction, but still very solid and professional.

Thanks for a most detailed rundown on this old lens and the M42 system. It is clear that you have got a great value telephoto solution there. It would be very interesting to see comparisons between that and the modern 55-300mm. No doubt the sharpness of the old lens will stack up well.

One thing I have become aware of with some old lenses (I have noticed it with my 28 & 135mm primes) is a rather purple/magenta cast on parts of the image, generally areas that are hazy or of lower contrast. It is not easy to sort out in PP either, doesn't seem to respond to normal colour balance or saturation adjustments I have found.

However your 300mm sounds brilliant Andrew, a great find. The sheer physicality of using these types if lenses is such a pleasure with tactile handling and rick solid operation. I've been enjoying messing around with extension tubes on my old glass .... I suppose it might even be worthwhile to take some pictured as well !!

No doubt about it, this little M 75-150 is a real gem, and now its going to get a new lease of life for close-ups. Thanks for those tutorials and technical tips Algi & John.

Did someone mention taking photos now ? Ah well then, you all know you're in for some treats now with many a set to come of technically proficient, sharp, low noise left-brain thinking mediocre macro images fit only for the recycle bin !!!!!!

Hah! - after my cracking start not being to able to get the ring off, the thought of any scraping or anodising puts the fear in me! I might hold fire for a bit ...

I've got the Tamron Adaptall 135mm f2.8, and a few test shots last nght look very sharp on that - and thats at ISO 1600 on the K7, so there's great potential there I think. Its a good focal length as well for this sort of thing. I've been enjoying focussing with live view and a magnification zoom using the info button - seems to nail it very well if I just sway my body in and out slightly. Looking forward to trying out some proper subject out in the wild.

The later WR version of the kit lens is well regarded and I enjoy using it and for most of my general family type of stuff it is great. I don't pretend though that it is up to scratch for more purposeful photography, and optically all my other lenses outperform it.

If you are looking to upgrade a kit lens I would recommend going a bit further and getting one of the more common upgrade options - something with a wider aperture, slightly wider range and higher IQ than any of the kit lenses. There are a couple of options from Pentax, Sigma & Tamron which others who use them will be able to recommend specifically.

Of course, if there is a small budget by all means you could just move to the WR version of what you have, but for me an upgrade is a chance to seize and really make more of a difference to your image quality.

GOT IT !! Thank you all very much .... it was that little 'chrome knob' thing, that I didn't think was a knob at all - it is in fact a screw that come out - I was just adjusting it in and out to no effect, but as Andrew just said, it lifts up and pulls the pin up with it, therby releasing the ring. Great, I've got my lens back!

I've also now got a great set of Jessops tubes to try - interesting thing is these are more sophisticated with each having a bayonet lever - the Neewel ones don't ... what will be the practical use of this bayonet?

Thanks to all who replied - just goes to show how good this forum is ! Lucky I've stayed around