I just sent two cameras to Robin for repair/service. I think these are the 5th and 6th cameras I have sent him which seems a good recommendation to me!

K.

I got an ME, MV and MV1 all for paltry sums recently. The MG probably was a paltry sum too but it had a 50mm f/1.2 lens attached to it so it was hard to tell. I was probably the only person bidding who wanted the camera as well as the lens!

K.

Polarisers don't work very well with very wide angle lenses so I wouldn't fret about that one.

Happy birthday and enjoy your new lens.

K.

I have Lightroom (1.4 I think?) and CS3. I only got them as I can buy them at a bargain price through work. Had I had to pay full price I would probably have investigated cheaper options. Although Lightroom is slow it is excellent and I do 99% of my work there. The main thing I find easier in CS3 is cloning things out. Because one edits the files non-destructively, you aren't really aware that you have a separate "RAW conversion" stage. When you have finished tweaking you just click "export" and choose size etc. then. You have to do that whether you are working on jpegs or RAW.

Software is a very personal thing, and most of the packages mentioned will do most of what most of us want!

Best wishes, Kris.

I have both these cameras (both black). I find it rather limiting that there is no indication of shutter speed beyond the red/yellow/green thing. The only way I can see of doing it is slowly shutting the aperture down until the green goes to yellow which would be the change from 1/60th to 1/30th and then working it out from there. These models seem to be essentially "SLR point and shoot" cameras. Interesting stuff though. I now have one of each of the M-series cameras, although not all the variants.

K.

We don't seem to have a drool smiley. I am not sure quite what I would use it for, but I want one anyway

Get behind me Satan...

The AF 35-70mm lens appears to be quite a rare beast. I keep looking on ebay to no avail. Mind you, who would have guessed a 400-600 mirror would turn up...

K.

I used my ME Super on manual most of the time. For small objects etc. I would meter off a gray card. For landscapes I found that when using slide film "auto" was not accurate enough so I used manual and would meter excluding almost all sky, preferably off some grass which usually worked pretty well. For BW and print film most "normal" circumstances worked pretty well on auto. In fact, I think I spent less time fiddling with exposure on my ME Super than I do with my K10/K20 although, of course, I didn't have the luxury of the histogram to consult!

Enjoy the camera. They are lovely little beasts. I have four now!

Cheers, K.

Photopia replaced the entire front barrel of my 50-135 just because the lens hood holding wotsit had partly sheered off. That AND replacing the SDM motor cost £78.

Photopia may be as slow as molasses but they send you a quote before starting on the job which you can accept/decline (and don't forget the PUG discount).

K.

I was lucky enough to pick up a Pentax aluminium case a while back but have never seen another on ebay. I could do with two or three more!

K.