Mine works perfectly with the DS and it's just as wonderful on a DSLR as it was on a film one.

The only real difference on the digital body is that it's better to set the aperture on the camera body instead of using the aperture ring. You can still use the aperture ring if you want but the camera needs to be in manual mode to expose properly - you press the AE-L button and it stops down briefly to set exposure.

I'm another Cokin P user. I have a fairly comprehensive P setup and a much smaller A one (which I don't use). I do recall playing stupid amounts of cash for top end UV screw in filters in large sizes (I think one is even a Pentax) but I don't use them and I'm not even sure where they are.

My FA* 85 works fine on the DS and exposures have been spot on. The only problem I have noticed with it is that using the on-camera flash the subject needs to be quite a distance away to avoid over exposure even at apertures smaller than the maximum.

Here's one using the Vivitar 55mm F2.8 macro - this was at it's maximum magnification of 1:1.




I've very impressed with the lens so far and I'm looking forward to having it with me when I'm out and about with the camera.

I've got a cheap macro lens coming from an Ebay purchase and once that arrives I'm planning to do some more organised stuff using my studio lights.

My wife bought some macro flower pictures which are in one of our bathrooms and I'm determined to replace them with some of my own!

I got a couple more that I like.

This is my sons left eye:




And for this one the flash was mounted on camera with a Lumiquest Promax fitted.

I finally got round to giving macro a try with the DS myself:













The last is one of my wife's rings - she has very small fingers which should give some idea of the magnification. All shot handheld with the DS set at ISO 200, 1/125 and F22, an SMC-M 50mm F1.7 with various extension rings and a 400FTZ flash off-camera using the hot-shoe adaptor and extension cord.

I originally started using a tripod but I found it much easier to work handheld, setting the lens to its closest focus and moving the camera to achieve focus.

After a couple of weeks of use now I have to say that I'm not at all impressed with the kit lens, and in fact I'm thinking about using an old 18-35mm Cosina instead until I decide on what wide angle zoom to buy.

Pentax may at some point "badge" one, but I doubt they'd make it as it'd more likely be a rebadged Tamron, Tokina or Sigma. That's not necessarily a bad thing e.g. the Pentax FA 28-200, while a rebadged Tamron, is a better quality lens that several "real" Pentax's I've had, suh as the FA 28-80 or the 18-55 digital kit lens.

I tried the C41 B&W films a few times and while the results could be pretty good it was necessary to use a pro-lab in which case it was not cheaper than using normal B&W film.

I tried a few mini-labs but the results were terrible.