Excellent set, I really enjoyed looking at all of them and they give a great impression of the spectacular conditions and views there. If I had to pick one favourite it’d be 4, mainly based on the composition giving the waves the main stage and keeping the viewer guessing whether there is any land at all at the bottom of the frame or if you could be approaching from the open seas, dramatic stuff indeed.

S-M-C Takumar 120mm f2.8 from an eBay seller in Japan and an S-M-C Takumar Zoom 85-210 f4.5.

The 120mm from Japan was with me within a week and the import tax wasn’t too bad in the end. It’s my first purchase from Japan and if anything the condition is better than described which is always a pleasant surprise. It’s really compact and will fit nicely in my coat pocket to give a discreet short Tele option with my K5iis. Initial testing shows it to have enough difference in length over my 85mm to justify some use.

The condition of the 85-210mm is less than excellent but it seems to be so solidly built that a few scuffs on the barrel haven’t really affected it. It’s not quite as subtle and compact as the 120mm but fills a gap nicely and feels great to use.

All excellent and great variety, 2 and 4 are my favourites. 2 really draws me in, at first I wasn’t sure whether perhaps the highlight at the end of the track was distracting me but actually the more I look at it, the more I enjoy the contrast between that and the excellent detail in the shady sections.

I enjoyed all of these, if I had to pick a favourite it would be 4 as it sort of looks like a prehistoric snake climbing up out of the sand.

Thanks for all the encouragement. Since a couple of people have asked, here are couple more of the dog after a hard week of being the home office motivator-in-chief. These were all with the SMC Takumar 50mm.

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For the first three, the light was to his left and slightly behind, I was quite surprised at how much the K5iis can pick up in the shadows, I boosted them slightly in PP. The B&W I'm not sure about, he's such a lovely colour it seems a shame but I quite like the atmosphere with the back-lighting. With the last one it might come across in his face that he'd had about enough of my BS and was ready for a treat and/or bed.

I think Freiamt is in the Black Forest right? Plenty of nice photo opportunities around there. If you pass through Stuttgart and want to meet up for a photowalk or something let me know.

Oh yes, I haven't posted for so long I forgot to update my profile! I think there may be a vineyard in Cheshire somewhere but nowadays I live in southern Germany. The vines are in the countryside around Stuttgart.

Yes, there will be many more pictures of the dog, probably mostly sleepy with an occassional stroll in the woods.

I was in a similar position of looking for a used body which would not break the bank. I came to the conlusion that the K5iis can deliver a lot of image quality with great usability for the used prices (sub-300€/£250) I've seen them go for. I just couldn't justify the price jump to a KP (new or used). K3 was a close 2nd (K3ii was definitely out of my budget) but were still quite a bit more than the K5iis when I was looking. If I needed the MP, I've have gone for the K3 but realistically 16MP, especially without the AA filter, is plenty enough for some pretty large prints, even with some cropping. The sensor in the K5iis has a nice balance of MP, DR and High-ISO performance. ISO 80 was a surprise bonus in the K5iis, didn't notice that until I'd bought it.

I like how the light on the top of the wall in 3 makes it look a totally different colour to the face.

After a long break, easily a couple of years if not longer, of not really taking the time to think about photography I'd like to share my latest efforts. I've been motivated to buy a used K5iis which is so much more friendly to use (AF, metering, low light) than the K20D I've been using for the past 10 years. The K5iis may no longer be the latest model but it is a lot of camera for the used prices they are available for (mine worked out about £250 with some extras thrown in).

These two are from my first trip out with the new (to me) camera around the local vineyards

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And here of my very sleepy and therefore quite compliant old buddy with an SMC Takumar 1.8 which has spent too long unused in my photo bag:

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And finally one of the quince tree in the garden, looking ready for picking this weekend I think (this one is with a 50 mm 1.4 SMC Takumar, guess I still enjoy the vintage lenses)

_RDC4772 by d00d0c, on Flickr

Constructive criticism is most welcome, one think I noticed already is that I have a hot pixel. I had something similar on the K20D and remember having to do some sort of pixel mapping to fix it. Not a major problem I hope.