The photo of the problem seems to have been erased. Mine seems OK. The seal is recessed into the body and would probably only come off if it was levered off or played with. Every time the card enclosure is closed it firms up the hold. Only got my K20D a few months back, maybe it is an upgrade of sorts. (Well its possible)

Gosh, I put a CPL filter on the lens, and none were coming out sharp and exposure was not consistent. I thought another dud. Took the filter off, and now much improved. Next question. What filter will least effect the Autofocus of the lens on the camera? Is this normal, for filters to have this effect.

Bought the Sigma 70-300. Here I go again. If its no good I will resell it at a loss, and buy something else.

When I sold my *istDS, I bought a KM, didnt like it much so sold it about a month later (lost money on that one). My next decision was which to buy now. The K7 was just a little dear for my needs, so I bought the K20D. Shortly after I bought the K20D, they bring out the KX with video capabilities. I thought that would have been good. I am extremely happy with the K20D, its a pity it wasnt just a firmware upgrade to get video.

One day (unless of course you dont mind spending the money, and your wife doesnt mind you spending the money)you have to stop buying every new camera that comes on the market.

When will they bring out an upgradeable system that just means buying a new chip, or a slide out module like the Ricoh P&S.

Technology is just moving too fast for my liking, or should I say I like it but dont want to keep spending the money to upgrade everytime a camera with new features comes out. Next will be the almighty K5(LX model), Ive started saving for that one?

Hi Steloz, I see you use a Sigma DG 70-300 with your 20D. Do you have any issues with the autofocus. Are you happy with the lens in all respects.

Cheers from New Zealand,

Andrew

Thanks for that. I generally use them at the higher 300mm, but it depends how far out the waves are, or how close I can get. But I really need the lower focal length without a change of lens so a prime is really not an option for me.

The lenses I have sigma 100-300 are all KAF mounts, but the ones with the metal mounts just dont seem to work the camera autofocus as well as the plastic mount one. Is this the way it should be, or might it be issues such as dirty contacts or just damaged lenses.

As the surfers move fast and each individual is usually all over the place, I cant use a tripod. So all are handheld photos. I use 400 ISO and aim to get over 1/1000 as a shutter speed. I would not think that the unsharp images would be due so much to camera shake. I do see that some are, these seem to be obvious.

I did read in a previous post that sigma doesnt get the autofocus perfect, and I thought perhaps in older models that was even worse. I did read somewhere that the new penatx lenses have very fast autofocus to meet the standards of the new digital cameras.

Are the new digital lenses (d etc) better than the older lenses made for such as the MZ 30/50/60 etc, when used on the DSLR. Or are they perfectly the same standards. By trying to save some cash here, I could end up spending quite a bit if I dont get it right.

I had three sigma 100-300 zooms, two with metal mounts and one with a plastic mount. I was wondering why I wasnt getting really sharp photos. I assumed that it was because of the high zoom, as I take mostly surf photos. Note that I havent had the K20d for very long. The *ist DS I had performed quite well with the sigma lenses. Mind you I didnt use the metal mounts very much at all. After reading some of the posts here, I see that not all sigma lenses are really compatible with the K20D.

I did a tripod test, and it would seem the metal mounts (I presume older models) did not really give sharp auto focus photos) The plastic mount gave much better ones.

My questions to someone more knowledgeable are:

1. Will the sigma lenses also have problems with exposure on the K20D as well.

2. Will newer sigma lenses be better for autofocus capabilities than the older ones. Some of the new D lenses perhaps may be good.

3. In the Zoom range to 300mm is there a Sigma Lens model which anyone else is using that will give really sharp photos, as well a good exposure.

4. I realise that to get the best photos you need the best equipment, but is there a cheaper Pentax zoom which will give really good performance as regards sharpness and exposure.

You may realise that I really dont want to spend a lot more money, than I need to.

I have looked at three on E-Bay.

SIGMA 70-300 f/4.5-5.6 APO DG Macro
SIGMA 28-300 f 3.5-8.3 DG Macro
PENTAX DA L 55-300 F 4.5-5.8 ED

I really want good sharp photos, and would rather not be too disappointed with a lens and then lose money by onselling it on.

Cheers from New Zealand.

If you dont want to go to the expense of a take-apart-clean, try and put the fungus end of the lense directly under a desk lamp, for several hours. It may kill some of the fungus and lessen the effects. It depends on how bad it is, whether it will rid you of it.

Hi,

I started with a film Nikon SLR. When I decided to sell it and get into digital. I bought some point and shoots, then I bought some pentax film SLR as they were cheap. I have built up a collection of lenses, through buying up cheap pentax film SLRs. Throw away the bodies. So I started to buy Pentax DSLR's *ist DS, KM, now sold the KM (wasnt happy with it) and bought a new K20D. (Great camera by the way).

As I have three 100-300mm zooms, which translate to 450mm (I use them for surfing photos)

However if Pentax close down, and I have to buy a Nikon or Canon, I am concerned that I will go broke buying new lenses. Correct me if I am wrong but I assume that a digital lense at 100-300mm is exactly that. So if I was to buy a digital lense to get me to 450mm in a Nikon or Canon, it would cost me megabucks.

So I buy pentax due to the backward compatibility at a cheap price.

Hi,
I had some hints from another Pentax User site. He seems to think that the internal flash may not have fired or is firing incorrectly. I do recall that when using the external TTL Flash (Which I know now to be not compatible) that the "auto flash" setting became not available. When the image was blown out, I removed the external flash and used the internal flash. I noted that while the "auto flash setting" was available again, the setting remained on the fill flash mode.

I have always had trouble focusing automatically using fill flash mode and autopixt mode. Even on my DS. Why would that be I wonder.