It doesn't help with Pentax gear but for other makes the serial number can be informative. For most Soviet stuff the first two numbers of the serial number normally indicate the year, and for some Japanese third party lenses the number can indicate the actual manufacturer.

I dare say there are scams around that involve the numbers, but I cannot think what and, to be frank, wouldn't be bothered about giving out the number myself.

K.

Yet another update

Having just passed 50,000 views I thought another update was in order. Nothing serious about this, just curiosity and a bit of fun

The most viewed photograph was taken with my K20D and my SMC-M 100mm f/2.8 lens. It was featured in Flickr "explore" which gets you a lot of exposure/views (743 in my case).

Of the top 20 images:

6 are images of cameras/lenses.
2 were taken with my digital camera, both with manual focus lenses (the above mentioned 100mm lens and an Auto Takumar 55mm lens.)
2 were taken using 35mm film (both using my MX and Kodak Ektar 100)
The remaining 10 images were all taken using my free Lubitel 2 TLR on a variety of colour and BW films.

All hail the Lubitel! Before people start moaning about "Lomography", my old Lubitel is surprisingly sharp and free from vignetting. In fact, you'd be hard pushed to tell the difference between it and my Yashicamat 124G.

Cheers, Kris.

All taken in Romania on the road to Dobrogea across the Danube plain, Pentax K20D, kit lens, processed in Lightroom 1.4.

1. Not much there (colour version)



2. Not much there (monochrome version)



3. He was only 31 (1)



4. He was only 31 (2)



Best wishes, Kris.

That's true. The *ist etc. series of names was a marketing faux pas. How do you say it? "Star-ist"?, "Star eye ess tee?" And more importantly, how do you search for it online?!

K.

Only in the sense of Thomas Crapper, not the inventor of the flush toilet (despite what is often claimed) but founder of Thomas Crapper and Co. I have a Crapper manhole cover rescued from the building site.

K.

Some very positive sounding comments there although I think calling a camera the K-9 would be a mistake!

Best wishes, Kris.

Well off to the repairers it goes on Wednesday... Just hope they take less than the four months they took to repair my DA* 50-135mm

Thanks all. K.

Yes but:

Actually, the 2 sec timer turns SR off automatically.

K.

I fear I know the answer to this one.

I am in Romania for work. The other day I went to take a picture of a large Roman tower and the images were very very fuzzy despite bright light etc.

Back at base I decided to test the camera further and so I set it up on a tripod and used the 2 second mirror-up delay etc. Whether SR was on or not, the camera made a horrible clonking noise as the timer counted down, and I was getting images with the main image looking OK-ish but a second ghost image slightly offset from it.

I think the SR has developed a nasty fault and at a very inconvenient time. Any suggestions folks, apart from send it for repair?

I have a batch of macro shots to do today and I am going to have to revert to using the LX and BW film. Shame I left the FB-1/FD-1 viewfinder at home but at least I have my hand held meter. (Yes, I know the LX has excellent metering but the artefacts are set on black background which I want to be black, not gray!)

Best wishes, Kris.

There is a setting in the menus for the K10/K20 as to what you want reset and what you want to keep each time you turn it on. I have it set to put the ISO to 200 and get rid of any exposure compensation etc. No idea if the K-m has the same sort of thing?

K.