[forest_bear59]

I have to confess it. At last I have surrendered ...

A K-S1 'Lime Pie' edition now is mine. But at the actual price (approx. 300€) with kit lens (White) and FluCard I could not resist any more ...

Shame on me

[gaweidert]

I have to confess it. At last I have surrendered ...

A K-S1 'Lime Pie' edition now is mine. But at the actual price (approx. 300€) with kit lens (White) and FluCard I could not resist any more ...

Shame on me

We hosted a few short term exchange students from your neck of the woods. One from Usingen and one from Eschbach. We visited them back in 2005.

Perhaps you could post a few shots with your new K-S1 from the Saalburg Roman Fort. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would get to walk the same grounds where a Roman Legion once trod.

[esrandall]

I have to confess it. At last I have surrendered ...

A K-S1 'Lime Pie' edition now is mine. But at the actual price (approx. 300€) with kit lens (White) and FluCard I could not resist any more ...

Shame on me

No shame - it's a great little camera. I picked up a similar deal two months ago. I have the white/blue combo. Enjoying it so far. Hope you enjoy yours ☺

[Steinback]

So is fullframe Pentax the motivation for you to buy that Fisheye?

I bought both lenses with full frame bodies in mind. I wasn't really planning to get either but the price (from a dealer) was too good to pass up. We will see what happens in the spring but I expect that full frame ultra wide lenses will become scarce for a few months when the new camera launches just like FA 645 lenses did when the 645d came out.

[Canada_Rockies]

New appliances pretty much suck as they last about 7 years before failing. Our old refrigerator was almost 30 years old and still running when we got rid of it. "Green" appliances are a joke. I cannot believe that the latest ones which last all of 6 or 7 years before failure save any energy at all when you factor in the energy needed to manufacture three times as many as before.

I'm with you on that, but that isn't the only product that is horribly bright red rather than green as advertised. Hybrids do reduce airborne pollutants, but that 10 year life battery is manufactured by a number of different countries: what price the shipping, and what do we do with the lithium? What is the cost of using ethanol as a motor fuel? It does not contain as much energy as gasoline and cost an arm and a leg to make. I think it's a way of supporting farmers, myself.

[Tom S.]

New appliances pretty much suck as they last about 7 years before failing. Our old refrigerator was almost 30 years old and still running when we got rid of it. "Green" appliances are a joke. I cannot believe that the latest ones which last all of 6 or 7 years before failure save any energy at all when you factor in the energy needed to manufacture three times as many as before.

Here's a suggestion, made in earnest, and not being a smart aleck. Buy some hand tools, use YouTube videos and learn to fix your appliances yourself. In most cases, repairs aren't that difficult and if it's not an emergency, you can get the parts via that web at discount prices. Our refrigerator is at least 20 years old. I've replaced the ice maker water valve, the ice maker, the door seal and the door hinge cam, and none of the jobs took over a half hour - if that - and saved me a ton of money. You can almost always find a YouTube video stepping you through the repair process and you will also find that many appliances use shared parts because they are made by one company and have several other brand names put on. There aren't that many parts that can break on an appliance that can't be repaired. I even was able to find a new handle for our microwave (also the same age as the refrigerator) and used a YouTube video to show me how to fix it. In almost every case, all you are doing is replacing a part. It's not like doing rocket science or brain surgery. Generally, a few nuts, bolts or screws and you're done. Even if you don't know what's wrong, there's help on the web to diagnose the problem. Type in your model number and what it's doing or not doing, and Google will give you responses telling you what is most likely wrong, how to check it and how to replace it.

[ChrisPlatt]

Let me add that simpler, less feature-laden models are cheaper to buy
and cheaper to keep in the long run simply because there's less to break.

Kinda like cameras...

Chris

[jeallen01]

Agree with Tom S - and if you are replacing an old one with something the same/very similar then consider keeping the old one for parts if you have the space to store it. This year I repaired a UV insect killer with a failed tube with another tube from a very similar unit with a different brand name, and the motor of a wall clock with the motor rescued from another clock I scrapped many months ago. Net cost in both cases was ZERO, and it took less than 30 mins with simple tools in each case.

Other examples of useful repairs:
- old Bosch dishwasher failed because it had not been properly solvent deep cleaned and I bought another very similar Bosch - and then found that the lower dish tray on the old one was better than that in the new one because the wire separators folded down on the old one but did not on the new one - straight swop!
- Refrigerator door top hinge pin socket worked loose in the polystyrene/polyeurothene foam filling after about 18 month, so swapped the unused sockets from the other side of the reversible door but fixed those in place with epoxy resin - that was still fine when the compressor failed about 8-10 yrs later.

[gaweidert]

Here's a suggestion, made in earnest, and not being a smart aleck. Buy some hand tools, use YouTube videos and learn to fix your appliances yourself. In most cases, repairs aren't that difficult and if it's not an emergency, you can get the parts via that web at discount prices. Our refrigerator is at least 20 years old. I've replaced the ice maker water valve, the ice maker, the door seal and the door hinge cam, and none of the jobs took over a half hour - if that - and saved me a ton of money. You can almost always find a YouTube video stepping you through the repair process and you will also find that many appliances use shared parts because they are made by one company and have several other brand names put on. There aren't that many parts that can break on an appliance that can't be repaired. I even was able to find a new handle for our microwave (also the same age as the refrigerator) and used a YouTube video to show me how to fix it. In almost every case, all you are doing is replacing a part. It's not like doing rocket science or brain surgery. Generally, a few nuts, bolts or screws and you're done. Even if you don't know what's wrong, there's help on the web to diagnose the problem. Type in your model number and what it's doing or not doing, and Google will give you responses telling you what is most likely wrong, how to check it and how to replace it.

I do field service for a living and have repaired several of our appliances over the years. I am also on the road a lot so it is not always easy for me to get the repairs done in a timely fashion. I But this one needed a new compressor motor and chilling unit. I did use Google to check the symptoms,. I had a hunch and it was confirmed by an independent repairman that came to the house. I am on the road a lot and appliance repair/replace decisions are made with that fact in mind. At least I don't have to worry about the refrigerator for awhile.

[Ex Finn.]

Bought this to experiment with. A HUGE improvement in the boot-up, programs load and shut down speeds. I need couple more of these!

[Transit]

Other examples of useful repairs:
......

The bloke next door has this huge TV that I watch sports on occasionally.
The light tubes have been slowly expiring and now the view is mainly of the bottom right corner.
His wife said he had ordered some new ones. Crossed my fingers it would be attended by a serviceman
but no, the son has had a go at it . The bottom left is quite bright now but everything is purple

[Transit]

All this talk has me wanting to BUY SOMETHING
no wait, I just did buy something...
must have been under 4 on the search and acquire pleasure scale...
ah yes it was only last night....
the usb Q battery charger and of course another battery
thats only a 3...got quite excited it could lead on to a powerbank though

[Canada_Rockies]

To go with my new-to-me K-3 (which is working beautifully, BTW) I have a D-BG5 grip at McBain's Camera in Lethbridge, just waiting for me to pick it up. Most of it is paid for by my elderly (Nov, 2007) but functioning K!0D with grip. They granted me C$175 on a trade in. Next acquisition will be after checking out PF's experts for focus correction bits and pieces.

I am an expert*, but some experts actually know what they are talking about.

*Expert: Ex=has-been, spurt=drip under pressure.

[Edit] I just ran the site's camera shutter count application, and the used K-3 I bought has 17,403 exposures including the two I took at smallest possible size and the 101 shots I have in my keepers. For C$525, pretty good, I would say.

[Jean Poitiers]

It has been quite quiet at my thrift store lately, but I did pick this up on Friday ... all works, just needed new batteries. For 5€ as marked on prism.

[Jonathan Mac]

It has been quite quiet at my thrift store lately, but I did pick this up on Friday ... all works, just needed new batteries. For 5€ as marked on prism.

Never heard of that camera before but the Chinon 50/1.7 is reputed to be pretty good.