Well sliced Andrew. Come to think of it, Stain doesn't need a crop off the top. But straightening the top edge does make it look tidier.

A crop off the bottom of Slice, and a crop off the top of Stain, IMO, so it evens out

Got to love multistorey car parks link

In all cases it seems the marks were under, not on, the glass to the front of the sensor. The characteristic 'spray' patterns which look so much like oil spatters have been confirmed to lie behind the glass, as reported by people who have had their sensors professionally cleaned or by boffins like Falk Lumo who have measured the position of the offending marks. It would be extremely unlikely that two different causes were at work, producing the same or similar pattern of marks?

eech I've got to change that avatar, seemed a funny idea at the time...

The DA15mm, which I'd have to import from the US to get it under £500.

Perhaps the heat is exacerbating some flaw in the glass or some coating or adhesive layer.

Perhaps if the shots were HDR, featured colour-popping, wafer thin DOF, rear-curtain sync flash or some sort of rare bird feeding from a bag of nuts suspended from our future monarch's face, the pictures would have found more favour?

Just teasing of course

That guy in the waistcoat looks like a REAL Pentaxophile

I think it's worth perserving Adrian. Dr Mhuni's another one who coaxes great shots from his DA10-17mm. The fisheye in these shots isn't adding much to the composition IMHO.

I always used Recykos with my K200D, no problems. They are advertised as fully charged and ready to use, but I didn't find this was the case with my camera though.... needed a proper charge first. I guess they're OK straight from the packet if you pop them in your alarm clock or remote

Surely a measure of how many units Pentax shifted at the time, not that these aren't good cameras? Of course the less common... (less successful?) bodies will be more prized in a "collector's" market.