Awwww!!... Yves - I'm sorry to hear that, pal!! Maybe she is in the best place at the moment though. You personally can only do so much, although it must be heartbreaking for you to witness. "Keep your chin up!" doesn't really help, but it's probably the best thing I can find to say under the circumstances.

Good to hear!!..Looking forward to seeing some shots taken with your new toy then!!

Ralph - none of these cards will do anything to what's on the cards other than attempt to "read" the data, then an algorithm-thingy reconstructs what it finds to another storage place (usually on your desktop/laptop, away from the card).

Ralph - try Iolo Search & Recover link. If you decide you want to use this, I can PM you with the licence key, provided you delete the program (or licence the software in your own name if you find it useful). If you give this program a go, use SMARTSCAN and STRONGSCAN simultaneously. That way, every single bit and byte on the card gets analysed. It takes a while to run (because it can be so thorough), so probably something you'd want to run overnight.

As an afterthought - have you tried rocking the lock switch a few times? It may well be that a wee bit of fluff has worked its way into that part of the card, and although it "feels" as though the card is unlocked, it may actually be misinforming you.

Don't worry - you are only committing an offence if you "clock" a vehicle's mileage - I don't think it's illegal with cameras!!

I've had another look at shots 1 and 3... 3 "works" better, because the subject (Samantha) is more closely cropped, and the graffiti is slightly OOF, giving the image more of a sense of depth. 1 "works" in that it is not so closely cropped, so that we get a sense of location within the shot - however, the graffiti is pretty-much as sharply focused as Samantha is, making the image look a bit to "two-dimensional" to my old, tired eyes!!

Kiwao - have you considered taking the lens back to the guy that sold it to you, and perform a colonoscopy on him with the lens?

Joking aside, try writing to the CEO of Ricoh Pentax, and in the letter, clearly state that you would like him to offer you a price for every piece of your Pentax gear (list all bodies, lenses, etc), so that you can "buy a Canon / Nikon / Sony, etc" equivalent, and make sure you state that their rivals are much more reliable. I don't think that would go down too well, that you would buy from a competitor - so that is maybe what will get their attention.

Good luck anyway!

With the bright pink dress in shots 1 and 3, Samantha certainly stands out - to the point of overpowering, perhaps? The graffiti in the background perhaps needs a bit more of a blend of colours, as it's predominantly black and white, with only the slightest hint of any other colour. Just my observation/opinion though.

Lancer - as Vic says, make sure you get a fast card. Class 10 is good, or if you can get it, Class 16. Sandisk is quite a reputable brand, so you should be safe there too. Consider however, that if the average file size of each JPEG is about 5Mb, you should comfortably fit 200 shots per Gb onto a card. The downside to using a 32 0r a 64 Gb card is that you stand to lose 6,500 (32Gb) or 13,000 (64Gb) JPEGS if the card develops a fault, and the files are irrecoverable! That said, make your file back-ups as often as possible.

John - make sure the water is cold, not too soapy, and only keep them submersed in the water for the briefest of periods - enough to cleanse the detritus from them. Squeegee them to remove excess water, and hang them up well away from any source of heat - it stops the neg's from deforming, and there's less chance of water droplet marks on them too.