Is it because the *istDL is TTL compatible but not P-TTL ?

I love the M 50mm 1.7, but dont ever remember them selling for more than around 50 pounds

Always been my dream to capture one of these. Well done.

Lovely warm light.

From personal experience I would steer clear of the FA 28-80 3.5/4.7. Apart from being slow the image quality is questionable,

The best lens in the range you want is in my opinion the FA 24-90 3.5/4.5. But it does sell for £150/200 today !

If you stick to Pentax lenses, any "K" mount lens will fit. You should be able to find plenty on ebay. For autofocus capability stick to F or FA lenses. I would avoid any modern lenses as you may have compatibility issues with your camera.

Look here http://kmp.pentaxians.eu/lenses/short/

Oh gosh. Wonderful.

Nice. I love Hahnemuehle paper. I dont print myself but their "photo-rag" and "German etching" are my choice when I send images off for printing.

Virtually any zoom lens, when zoomed, experiences a change the internal volume capacity. If the lens was completely sealed you would not be able to zoom it at all. Modern weather resistant lenses do most of their breathing through the lens mount....ie air is pushed and sucked out of the mirror box. You cannot avoid dust in a lens, and thankfully minor amounts do not affect the picture quality.

Ah....BMW sump guards are not really my field ! I guess people are chancing their luck with higher offer prices. Don't pay the higher prices and they should come lower again.

We don't have a trade agreement with China, and there wasn't one when we were in the EU so there should be no change on that front. The EU did sign an Investment Agreement with China last month. Not a full trade deal, but could pave the way for one.

Transport logistics may be playing a part too. Coronavirus is causing problems with shipping items from all over the world, and combined with brexit bottlenecks at UK ports may persist for a number of months yet.