I always mistrust ebay listings which get their facts wrong.

This lens is NOT fully compatible with automated features on DSLRs, lacking as it does an A setting on its aperture ring.

It's stop down metering only.

Also, "constant F1.4 aperture" WTF? it's a PRIME, constant over WHAT exactly? focus travel???

The original Vivitar Series 1 lenses were really good and most were something unusual (at least for the time). Then later they started just trying to capitalise on the reputation without actually doing anything clever.

Didn't Vivitar as a company go under a while back? perhaps someone has bought the name, although why you'd want it escapes me.

thanks for the heads up hefty, my parents live near Aylesbury so we shall have to see what can be found.

it's easy, you just have to make like Canon did with the EF-S mount.

EF lenses fit on an EF-S camera, but EF-S lenses don't fit on an EF camera.

In this case all you have to do is make the camera mount electrically and optically but not physically K compatible, then supply an adaptor with the camera which allows mounting K lenses a bit further away.

It would be a smart move for Samsung, since they have already stated it isn't u4/3 mount and they don't have an existing lens base of their own. They already have a relationship with Pentax and could sort of borrow the K mount lens base while they get their native lens mount established.

I find the problem is less with my own photos and more with other peoples. I hasten to add, not because mine are in any way flawless, but just because I wont get upset with myself for not liking my own photos!

Most of my friends and family are not photographers, but most of them do take photos (mostly on compact P&S cameras on auto). Occasionally they want to show off how wonderful their holiday snaps are and it can be very difficult to hide my disapointment at their "wonderful" pictures which could have been 100x better if the composition, focus or exposure had been slightly different.

here's another one of potential interest, a little more expensive but still rather a lot cheaper than the BG-2

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/pro-battery-grip-for-Pentax-K10D-K20D-GX-10-repla-D-BG2_W0...

and it has dials and buttons galore

mmm possible birthday pressie for me there. Never could justify £100 for the amount of use I'd get out of a grip, but £30 odd is a different story. It might help to make my 300mm Tamron SP slightly less unbalanced as well (miracles happen!)

nice find Scott, keep us informed!

If it makes the difference between getting the shot and not, then use as much ISO as you need. Particularly in situations like this, you'll be much happier to have some slightly noisy shots than no shots at all.

I'm not sure which camera you have, but if it's a K10 or a K20 I'd be inclined to go for TAv mode. Set your aperture/shutter combination and let the camera give you the ISO it needs. This lets you take advantage of fleeting changes in the light to drop the ISO whenever you possibly can without risking missing a shot.

Be careful, I can't even bring myself to sell my Ricoh KR5 Super II, let alone something as beautiful as an MX.

Yes, I'm addicted to SLR cameras and their associated lenses and other bits, and you know what? I don't even care!!

My girlfriend despairs.

it certainly is, but my Dad has both the F70-210 and the DA 55-300 and while we haven't done any scientific tests I have seen nothing to indicate the 70-210 is better. In fact, I have yet to see a flaw in a shot from the DA which can't be explained by human error or bad light.