I have had a Linksys NSLU2 NAS running for a couple of years now - more as an ethernet->USB bridge for my PVR than a dedicated file server, although it's designed as a fileserver.

It's a bit smaller than a paperback book, runs on <10W, has 2USB and one ethernet port and the firmware is Linux based. If you're a techy you can replace the stock firmware with a much fuller Linux installation and have it do all sorts of stuff. As it comes out of the box, it will share hard disks plugged into the USB ports across the network and (I think) printers.

These things are remarkably cheap - mine was about £40. You can also get ones with built in wi-fi for a bit more. I expect that something like this, along with an external USB enclosure for your 160gb disk (~£10?) might be the best solution for you.

Robin

Microglobe (www.microglobe.co.uk) are a bit north of New Oxford Street, between Tottenham Court Road & Holborn. They seemed to have a fair bit of Pentax kit in when I bought my 50/1.4 just before xmas. They don't have a Pentax body to test things on though, but I don't suppose they'd mind if you take your own along.

Robin

The flash certainly should give you a red AF assist light, however it seems to be the camera that requests the flash to do this, and the K10D seems to me to be a little reluctant to make this request.

If I put my AF540 on my old mz10, it will use the AF assist light for pretty much any scene where the AF hunts (low light or low contrast). Put the same flash on the K10D and frame the same scene and quite often the AF will hunt back/forward to the limits and give up, all without activating the assist light. To be honest, to begin with I wondered if the assist light was working at all.

One thing that I have noticed is that light entering through the viewfinder can be sufficient to stop the AF assist light from firing - i.e. if you have a bright light behind you and a dark scene in front, the AF light may not fire. Try again with something held over the viewfinder and it does.

I'm not aware of any settings on the camera or flash that would change the circumstances in which the AF light is used. It seems odd that the camera doesn't have a second go at focussing with the AF light on if the first fails regardless of percieved light level, etc.

Not sure what the range of the AF light is, but outdoor scenes may be pushing it. What it does say in the manual (for the AF540) is that the AF light only works accurately when the flash is mounted on the hotshoe.

Robin

It's another Li-ion battery 'feature' - you can't track charge level by voltage very well as it stays pretty constant until very nearly empty. Laptop computers get around this by keeping track of charge/discharge current over time - i.e. it was 50% full, we've just drained 2A for 5 minutes, so now it's 45% full...

Of course if the charger isn't integrated into the device you don't have the option of doing this, so you get a crummy charge level indication.

Robin

If you end up keeping a Li-Ion battery unused for a long time it's best to keep it cool and about 1/2 charged - that way the capacity loss with time is slowest. (Note that this is a permanent loss of full charge capacity over time, not just a discharge that can be restored). On the other hand being 1/2 charged is less useful if you're wanting it as a spare battery for when the primary one runs flat...

More information than you ever wanted to know about batteries can be found here http://batteryuniversity.com/index.htm

Robin

Yep, line it up exactly with the lens release button to engage the lens. Good, helpful, design work there.

From the look of the plastic I wondered if it might be supposed to be glow-in-the-dark, but I can't see any sign of it. I expect the colour is just to provide high contrast against the black of the lens in low light situations.

cheers,

Robin

That makes sense too One less mystery to solve, cheers!

Robin

Ok, that makes sense.

I somehow get the feeling that in the last few years before DSLRs really came on the scene, the *useful* feature set for the film SLR had fairly much been worked out - this left marketing department to come up with gimmick features like power zoom etc to try to differentiate new models...

Robin

No I have two questions

What did a lens index lamp do?

Robin

[edit] ps. will try out your alignment trick when I have a moment, thanks [/edit]

I've often wondered what is the purpose of the small green/white hemispherical thing adjacent to the focussing ring of M/A series lenses. Both my A series lenses are second hand, so no manuals to explain what it might be...

You can see the thing in question nicely on the left hand side of the first two lenses on this page http://www.vahonen.com/photo/equipment/pentax/lenses/picsoflenses/

Any ideas?

thanks

Robin