well if you don't care about the price then forget anything which doesn't say "Pentax SMC" on the lens barrel. As for 50 vs 100, I have heard the same as you but I'm not entirely sure

I'm going to take a stab in the dark and say eventually?

not a shortening I have seen before but would make sense given the price of the 1.2

all three are fine lenses, my personal favourite would probably be the 35 F2. I have a Zeiss 35 F2.4 which I love to bits and an Autofocus F2 would be even nicer.

But then I'm a sucker for the good old standard prime, which on any current Pentax DSLR is about 35mm.

If you're into portraits then the Pentax 50 F1.4 is tough to beat in any mount.

The 40 2.8 is a fine lens but I probably wouldn't pick it for a K10D, the pancake primes are (IMO) better suited to a *ist or K100 since they make for an exceptionally small and light camera.

The K10D has a rear mounted IR receiver so it can be controlled from more or less any direction. Most useful.

I don't know, my *ist DL2 produces some pretty darned fine shots. I upgraded because I wanted SR, the 9 frame RAW buffer and SSM lens compatibility, but it was a tight thing as to camera first or lenses. I went with the K10 because I hate tripods and figured 320mm with SR was far more sensible than 500 without!

I am now using the DL2 as a second body with the 18-55 mounted on it more or less permanently. I have no hesitation in using it interchangeably with my K10D except in situations where SR is a must. At some point I'll probably change the *ist for a K100D so that both bodies have SR, but I have lenses to buy first.

the single and only difference between those two models is SR. Unless you count the price of course.

Thanks guys,

Mike, I was indeed fortunate, it seems a lot of Atlas's had decided last week was a good week to come out of their cocoons, there must have been 10 or 12 of them in the butterfly house I visited. The guide explained to us that they could spend up to 5 years in the cocoon and then live for just a few days. Amazing creatures.

George, thanks for the comments, I'll play around a bit more with the crop I think (this is already cropped somewhat). I can see where you are coming from.

Mac, glad you like the shots, thanks for looking. I tend to post my shooting info if I remember it since GIMP tends to munch on the EXIF data, and I have learned a lot over the years from seeing that same data in other peoples shots. I am far from an expert but if anyone can learn from my pictures or just enjoy looking at them I'm a happy man.

Here are a couple of piccys from my recent holiday. They don't really relate to each other, but I felt like sharing them both and didn't want to clog the forum too much. Let me know any thoughts.




This guy is an Atlas Moth. I met him at a butterfly house just outside Victoria, BC. I could have spent all day taking photos in there, and indeed I did take 2GB worth in the couple of hours I was there.

The Atlas is the worlds largest moth and can be up to a foot across. This guy was about 8 inches wing tip to wing tip.

K10D
Tamron 90mm SP Macro + 2x converter
~F16
1/30th
ISO 800

Processed in UFRAW and Noise Ninja




Here is the WWII twin 6pdr quick firing gun at Fort Rodd Hill. It defended the entrance to Victoria harbour from Torpedo boats although I don't think it was ever fired in anger. It was a pretty miserable day when I visited there, so I tried for a moody silhouette look, let me know what you think

*Ist DL2
DA 18-55 @ 31
F9
1/640th
ISO 200

Processed in UFRAW with a little noise added to the sky in GIMP.

hope you like 'em

lose the preflash and you lose flash metering, but it would be nice to have it as an option for full manual control.

edit: inability to spell, thanks Chris

with RAID, remember that it only protects against hard drive failure. It can't protect you against user error, virus damage or anything which results in the files being deleted as they will just be deleted off both disks.

It's always wise to have anything that really matters backed up in at least 2 ways, preferably in different places.

It's true that self builds aren't as cost effective as they have been in the past (and may yet be again, it tends to cycle). It does still have the advantage that you know exactly what goes in there.