Thank you for your replies.
I am pleased to report success.
I contacted Harrison Cameras as they advertise Irix lenses for sale. They sent it to a repair company they use.
I received it back this week, all fixed.
I can thoroughly recommend Harrison Cameras. They were so friendly , helpful and efficient.

Paul

A word of caution if you own a Pentax DFA 21mm lens and wish to use a screw in ND filter. I purchased a Lee Elements 67mm little stopper for this purpose but discovered that the filter ring has two knurled sections which are quite chunky. They are probably a good idea for normal use but on this lens it makes the filter ring too wide to fit inside the hood!
Filter being returned.
Does anyone have recommendations for other makes which actually fit inside the hood.
thanks
Paul

The lens is out of warranty unfortunately.
A good question as to who are the importers. A cannot find a reference to one. I am trying the few companies who advertise Irix lenses for sale.

Has anyone had an Irix lens repaired?
The official service centre is in Poland and that is quite expensive and not straight forward now after Brexit.
I would prefer to find a UK repair technician.
The lens is the 15mm f2.4 Blackstone and use it on a K1. - I have also checked it on a K3.
The lens does not stop down to the right aperture causing overexposure.
If I shoot at full aperture then it is fine but at smaller apertures it is over- exposed.
It appears that the diaphram lever is not moving freely it is very slow to move and it does not spring back.
Also the lens mount is now loose.
I bought this lens new from Cameraworld and when I first had it I occasionally had the same overexposure problem but that seemed to resolve itself and the lens has been fine since then until a recent trip.
I contacted Cameraworld but they offered no help whatsoever.

I would be grateful for any suggestions.
Paul

Another option- Panasonic Lumix LX100.
I have the mark 2 version which I use as a small carry around or when cycling when i do not want the bulk of a DSLR.

I agree modern smartphones are great and it is remarkable what they can produce but I miss the ability to change settings with them.

The Lumix gives complete manual control as well as auto. It has a viewfinder which was critical for me
I find the Lumix is fiddly at times and it is easy to hit the wrong button.
The menus are very different to Pentax and the raw format is Panasonic RAW (RW2) which may not be recognised by earlier versions of LR.
It is not as compact as the Sony RX100 series but I found it easier to handle than Sony.
It is certainly worth considering but I recommend trying it in store.

I have been asked by a friend to recommend a place for good quality scanning of primarily colour negatives.
There will be about 250 images on negative strips of 6.
The scans will be used for display on a monitor and possibly for printing after some minor post work. I suspect jpeg will be adequate rather than TIFF.

Can anyone help
thanks
Paul?

Nigel,
Thank you for taking the time to answer the question on filters. That is an extremely useful post.
I would not have thought about the lugs for the hood preventing fitting the adaptor ring.
You have done well to find a way around the problem. At such wide angles one is dealing with fine tolerances to avoid vignetting.
There are newer filter holders on the market which are slimmer e.g the Irix Edge. Also the Kase K9 holder has a wider diameter so it can take a 90mm CPL.
The only way to know if they work is to try it on the lens. It gets expensive to keep buying different filter holders and you need a friendly dealer to be able to try them on the lens. In theory they could work but the devil is in the detail....

At the moment that gives me a good reason not to buy the lens!

As a comparison, I have the DA 12-24 lens and use the Lee system with it. The 77mm adaptor easily clears the hood lugs. If I remember correctly at 12mm one can only use 1 filter slot to avoid vignetting, . I did loads of tests with and without screw in filters and CPL and could find those if anyone wanted.
Thanks again for the post.
Paul

All sounds very positive. I was very tempted myself but held off for now. My main query , besides the price!, is how the lens performs with filters .
I would love to know whether you get vignetting particularly with a 100mm square system and at which focal length.
Any information on this would be most welcome. I have asked on both the forums without success so far.
Thanks
Paul

Has anyone used this lens with 100mm filter systems such as Lee, Kase, Nisi etc?
Does it vignette at the wider focal lengths?

thanks
Paul

I have used the Irix edge filter holder on the Irix 15mm lens.
This works really well and uses 100mm square filters e.g. lee, kase, NISI etc.
I purchased it from link just after it was released and it may be available from other stores now.
The holder is an excellent design , very well made and comes with the adaptor for the 15mm lens which attaches via the bayonet mount for the hood.
You can use the holder with two slots and it does not vignet.

Let me know if you want more info.

Paul