wow I wish Jessops in this country had that deal, I'd have a K100D by now for sure if they did......still come to think of it that sort of thing would probably be bad for my bank ballance overall.

there are some very nice Zeiss lenses in M42 which can be picked up pretty cheap. I have a Zeiss Jena Flektogon 35/2.4 which makes a great standard lens on my *istDL2. It's sharp as a tack (or even a tak(umar) lol) and cost me just £25 in a charity shop with a box of other "junk". M42 lenses can be mounted easily with a cheap adaptor and in many ways they actually work better than K and M series lenses with the *ist and K series of DSLRs.

There are also some Zeiss jena lenses in PK, PKA and even PKAF fit but they are made under licence in japan. The AF ones are actually identical to Sigma lenses of the same era and the optical quality, while ok, is not what you'd expect from the name. I suspect the ones for PKA are actually made by Tokina, these are pretty good lenses. My Dad has a 70-300 from this set and it is very nice for an inexpencive long zoom, easily better than my SMCP-FA 80-320.

You can also get Tamron Adaptall lens mounts for both PK and PKA (though the A series ones are like gold dust, being basically the only adaptall mount which works perfectly with a DSLR). Some of the Adaptall lenses are very nice, the 90mm macro for example has a good reputation (I'll let you know if its justified when mine arrives at the end of the week!)

What I am saying is the lenses meter correctly at minimum aperture. They cannot be set to any other aperture, so the lenses are not really supported (hence "not 100% accurate" rather than just "not true".

Think K mount lens on a *istD series in Av mode, but instead of the lens never stopping down, it ALWAYS stops all the way down. Metering is correct, but only F22 (or 32, or 45 deppending on lens and zoom setting) is useable.

In reallity it's not THAT useful, but it is facinating that they went to that amount of trouble to make the lenses work after a fashion even without the aperture ring.

To all practical purposes the official line might as well be true, but mounting a DA lens on an M series body will result in a properly exposed photo, you'd just better be using a tripod!

That is the official line but according to my testing is not 100% accurate. If you examine the back of the DA lenses you will notice that they still have the actuator which should be connected to the aperture ring. It is permanently fixed in the "stop all the way down" position as if the lens had a ring and that ring was in the A position.

The upshot of this is that if you mount a DA lens on an M series or earlier body, what you actually get is correct metering, always at minimum aperture (F22 or whatever).

I tried this on my ME-F, it works. Yes, Pentax really are THAT mental about backward compatibility.

Rubbish. I myself mounted a DA* 50-135 on a K1000 last weekend.

It has no aperture ring, so aperture is locked at F22 and it vignettes from 50 to about 75mm.

However, it can be mounted and whats more it meters correctly (at F22, I checked this against my K10D).

On my Z50P or MZ-7 the DA* lens is fully operational at the longer focal lengths.

for example I have a Zeiss Flektogon 35mm F2.4

It is an amazing standard lens on a crop sensor DSLR, and is probably my favourite lens overall.

This lens is so sharp wide open that on my *istDL2 I cannot distinguish a difference in sharpness between F2.4 and F8

I suspect (though I have not yet had the chance to prove) that this would not be the case on the 10MP K10D, or at least that this stunning lens would be revealed as even sharper than it already appears. I think I might have to put some sort of a warning on it if so, people might cut themselves.

I recently picked up a Tamron Adaptall SP macro 90mm F2.5 from Ebay for £50 with the matching 2x converter. I'm very pleased with its performance, both as a macro and a mid tele lens. If you can get the KA mount for it then it becomes fully compatible with the Pentax DSLRs. Alas these are hard to get, but you can still use it as you would an M or K series lens with the KM mount (this is what I have).

DOH! that's what comes of posting in the middle of the night I suppose

surely if its still boxed it will come with an owners manual?

I am jealous, the MZ-S is a real thing of beauty. Such a shame they never brought the MZ-D to market, but who knows, perhaps the next new model from Pentax will be a K1D and we'll finally have a pro Pentax digital body to lust after.

can't comment on the Pentax offering, but I use a Zeiss Flektogon 35mm F2.4 with my *ist and despite the inconvenience of using M42 lenses on the *ist it is still my single favourite lens.

you can't go wrong with a 35mm on a DSLR, you will love it!