I bought an M42 adapter a couple of years ago for a telescope attachment but tiny flecks of the black coating got onto the sensor and even behind the focus screen. A devil to remove as it was static so I would always now look at uncoated versions which I imagine the Pentax one is.

Hi Chris, I am on the lookout for a good deal on a K70 or a low shutter count one in excellent condition if anything comes your way.

Thanks Karlo, much apreciated. Photo no. 4 just made the front page of the local rag, Warwick Courier, but forgot to credit me! Heads will roll.

Last Friday I was privileged to have exclusive access to the BBC filming Countryfile in my village, down to the redoubtable ladies managing the PR for our local allotment society (yes really!) They work hard raising the public profile to build resistance to the sale of their site for housing by the landowner the C of E no less. Mostly with Matt Baker who was so nice to everyone he ran into and took great interest in my K1 + 70-200 f2.8 combo, saying his dad was a keen photographer. During a break a teenager said she hoped to meet him as she was going to uni to study journalism so I introduced her, and Matt and the crew spent ages with her chatting and giving advice, and afterwards introduced her to Helen Skelton so she was absolutely thrilled. I was allowed to take photos as long as I stayed out of shot and my shutter clicks didn't intrude on the sound recording, hence the long lens. The light was very variable as well so I was glad to have this excellent fast lens. My photos have been compiled into a slideshow: link and the society has also produced a short film with my photos which explains the context: link

Jim from our photo group did a great job as 19c reformer Joseph Arch and a motley cast of extras from the village were the 2000-strong cheering crowd of farmworkers (sorry thingsIhaveseen, not an Equity card in sight)! The programme will be broadcast on 25 August where the day's work will be distilled down to a few minutes.

Here are a few from the day.

Ah I see, that will save me getting conned! I suppose the newer ones have that looblue additive, I just bought a car with one of those because the only manual ones now have a petrol engine from a lawn mower.

When I say I still don’t understand my Welsh wife it’s the unfathomable phrases she keeps coming out with: if I hang a picture which isn’t straight she says I have an eye like a stinking eel! What’s that all about?

Why is the market about to drop in campervans? Maybe I will finally be able to afford one.

The only Welsh I know is “that’s lush!” and “what’s occurin?”

I look forward to being educated, my Welsh wife has failed in 40-odd years. Some things she says are a complete mystery to me.

An explanation I once heard from a Sigma salesman was that their lenses are all made on a production line, the last stage being the connecting and fixing of the particular mount; Canon, Nikon etc. were all fully electronic mounts so this was pretty straightforward. Because the Pentax K mount also had mechanical linkages the production line had to be suspended for a special run, which is inefficient and uneconomic especially for those lenses which have less demand.

I would have thought this could change with the latest K4 mount and after the K1 came out they very quickly modified the mount shape to suit, but I suspect all their efforts are now with cranking out special lenses for mirrorless bodies to supplement the rest of their range.

Tamron make some Pentax lenses under a special licence and it appears they don’t put K mounts on their own similar versions as part of that deal.

We have been patiently awaiting something to happen in the 100 year anniversary of Pentax, a new camera, lenses perhaps? Now we have it, a bloody mug for pity’s sake.