I have had no success in photographing the moon with my K3. Whatever settings I use, I get the red overexposure blinkies in live view - even if expose to the minimum and set the lowest ISO. There must be something that I am doing wrong. Any ideas please?

They look good for me and I think this is a better lens than 20-40 in terms of edge to edge sharpness. Any issues with focusing? Pity it is so heavy. I am hoping to try one in the near future to see how well I can cope with it.

Not a problem and glad that things turned out satisfactorily for you, but it is always helpful to see an update - such as " item now sold pending payment" and that way everyone knows where they stand without any need to respond to PMs.

Regards
Miles

I think we can assume that the items are sold but it is a pity that the OP neither acknowledged PMs sent to him ( mine received no reply) nor posted any update (apart from the flash) on the site so everyone knows what the position is.

pm sent

There are one or two reports that I have read that people had difficulty in getting focus as all focal lengths and at infinity with this lens. Mainly Canon users were involved so the Pentax mount might not be affected in this way. There is an optional USB dock with software which enables the user to adjust individual focal lengths, but the review that I read of this, said that lens adjustment by this method was time consuming and not straighforward. All the reviews of this lens are very favourable and if it works as it should, it looks to be a winner despite its weight.

Congratulations too on your appearance in Reader Spotlight in next week's AP. It is great to see a Pentaxian featured for once and you have produced some great images.

I think it works really well.

Is Pentax aware of the variation in sharpness between different copies of the new DA 20-40 Ltd?
Potentially a gem of a lens and a joy to handle and use but the edge sharpness even stopped down falls short of being satisfactory especially for landscapes where it shows particularly at the front of the image. I returned mine and tried 3 other copies, all of which were the same. On the other hand ephotozine reports sharpness across the frame at f5.6 and another review which I saw said f4 -mine was not sharp at the edges even at f8. I have come across a number of very satisfied users on this and another forum, so I am inclined to think that some of these lenses are being correctly assembled and some not! My expectation was that this lens could replace and come close to the quality of the DA 21 and DA 35 and help me to avoid a lot of lens changing. I am so glad that I did not part with the latter before seeing the results of the DA 20-40 Ltd - if I could find a good copy, however, I would not hesitate to buy it again.

Like John I am also Chairman of a camera club - not because of my photographic prowess, but simply because some one was needed to organise the club and I just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time! Our age profile is higher than we would like, despite our efforts to attract new members and particularly younger ones. I suspect that a great many people are so taken up with work and family commitments that they simply can not spare the time and there is also the issue of expense involved in printing and mounting photos which not everyone can manage. We have visits, presentations from outside speakers ( some well known) and practical workshops, and we also have competitions which not everyone likes. I believe it is a way of improving one's photography provided you get positive critique and sadly one or two visiting judges can at times be rather negative or require a visit to Specsavers! I take their views with a pinch of salt as they give one person's view of your work in relation to other images shown on the night. The best judges give a clear suggestion as to how an image might be improved and I find this very helpful. Camera clubs are an opportunity to show your pictures and above all it should be fun and something is wrong if it is not. We have very little discussion about specific gear and rarely see any unless it is a practical session. There are only 2 Pentaxians - me and the club secretary but we manage tolerate the majority of Canikonians! For some reason we have a happy club and no individual tries to force their views on the rest! I guess the experience is not for everyone, but watching a steady improvement in the images during the course of the year, I think the club is doing a good job.