The Q reminds me, sadly, of the Pentax 110 SLR.

In P , its sets the shutter speed to 1/30? But it seems to work ok as long as you don't use bounce or swivel. I guess that's down to trial and error - at least that's much easier on digital!

I find the inbuilt flash on the K100D fine for short range work, but it soon runs out of power. I've got hold of an AF 280T (I've got to operate on a limited budget) Can anyone suggest how to set this up to get the best use of its features? I know its not compatible with P-TTL, but shouldn't it have some ability above pure manual? There isn't a sync setting on the K100D (125X or whatever). This is probably a dumb question, but I've never been the sharpest tool in the box when it comes to flash photography.

This says it does -

http://www.bdimitrov.de/kmp/bodies/K_D/K200D.html

maybe this is causing the confusion?

I'd quite like to have the power zoom because I have a power zoom lens, but I don't want it enough to change my mind about which camera to buy.

OK, thanks for the responses. My lenses were in soft cases, which I think helped to collect the damp. Probably they should have had silica gel in, but that's the way I've been keeping them for years, previously, though, I'd have had them out every month or two to check them, and in any case the two zooms would have been used fairly regularly. Nice though the 50mm is, its years since I used it so I might try cleaning that one myself.

I'll think of some other way of storing them for the future.

It's typical that some of the less useful lenses seem fine!

Has anyone got reccomendations for places that do professional cleaning?

I've had a disaster and I'm looking for advice. For various family reasons that are unimportant in this context I've not had access to my lenses (apart from the two I use as 'walkabouts') for more than two years. I finally got to the two drawers they were stored in today and there is mould and fungus in there. Some damp must have got in, I guess. A few of the lenses look OK, but some of my favourites - KA 35-105, KA 70-210, M 50 1.4 have some spider web patterns inside. (no blotches, just small patches like fine hairs)

Can anyone suggest what measures I should take? I'm guessing all the lens cases, camera cases should either be cleaned or thrown out? Is it likely to do any good just putting them somewhere dry and warm? If the lenses need pro cleaning, how much is that likely to cost?

I've found a cache of old films, probably taken by my late wife. They are about 10 years old, I think. Can anyone suggest the best place to get them developed, since they may contain irrepalceable stuff. Obviously they are way beyond their sell by date, but they have been stored in a dry place in proper canisters. There are a dozen or more rolls of 35mm colour print film.

I don't want to start a controversy all over again, but...

I understand the point that is made that the preflash will fire off a slave prematurely. However..

With my old Chinon flash set to slave, as long as I have the camera pointing in roughly the same direction as the flashgun, I get much better pictures than with the inbuilt flash alone. If on the other hand I point the camera at the flash gun, as you would expect I get badly under exposed pictures.

I suspect the slave trigger on my flashgun is simply not sensitive enough to pick up the pre-flash under the former conditions. Anyway, I can't explain it, but it seems to work.

I don't do a lot of flash photography and I'm ignorant about the technicalities, but the inbuilt flash on the K100D - at least in P-TTL mode - seems to be one of the few truly disappointing things on the camera. It seems to consistently underexpose at short range, and illuminate only the centre of the picture at medium (across the room) range.

It's difficult for me to give advice, I don't own a K10, so I can't really compare ease of use with my K100 that I'm now pretty used to.

For me, the advantages I listed are significant and outweigh the disadvantages and this means I won't be changing to a K10 even though they are coming down in price.

There are obviously some things the K10 does better, - yes, I do notice the pentamirror is darker than my MEF, for example, but not so much that I have been inconvenienced (although if they had put a pentaprism in the K100 super I'd seriously have considered trading in for that). The 10mp vs 6mp debate seems somewhat of a red herring for a non-professional user also - both seem perfectly adequate for most conditions and purposes, but with different strengths and weaknesses when pushed near their limits.

All I was really trying to point out is that the comparison is not as simple as there being a 'junior' and 'senior' version of the same camera, there are a few things going for the K100 that the K10 doesn't have.

I've come to the digital Pentax's from an MEF that I have used for the past 20 years or more - there are three points which make me prefer the K100D.

I find it very convenient to use with older lenses, (using optical depth of field and the thumb wheel to dial in the speed) and there are no metering problems that I have noticed.

It's physically smaller, more like my MEF

It uses freely available (and comparatively cheap) batteries.

If you don't like the scene modes they are nicely identified in green so you can avoid them - my car has a cigarette lighter but I don't have to use it!

I have to say also cost was a factor. But, for my purposes, I still think the K100 was the better choice of the two - even more so now the Super is out.