Yes, I spent more money :( Today's purchase is a nice little secondhand F*300mm f/4.5 lens. Its previous owner is doing a photography course, and since everyone else was using Nikon he sold his Pentax kit. And who am I to complain? Some other lenses he was selling were quite tempting but I eventually decided against them.
The previous owner had modified the tripod shoe a bit as he thought it stuck out too far, so he had it shortened both in height and length. Looking at the photo on Boz's site it does look a bit like overkill. Whoever did it made quite a tidy job, and it still balances perfectly with the Z-1p attached. I still needed to modify it slightly so my own modified Manfrotto hex plate would fit nicely. 10 minutes with the drill and it was sorted. Don't worry folks, the shoe is detachable! I really like the handling of this lens; it seems less front-heavy than the A*300mm f/4, and it focusses a lot closer. The tripod shoe is well worth having. The built-in hood is quite interesting: you unscrew it, slide it out, then screw it into place. It actually makes sense; it seems a bit better than the bayonet-fitting hoods of the FA* lenses. The AF is very very quick with the Z-1p in bright sunlight. I don't like the MF/AF selection; you have to change the setting on both the lens and the body. Also you don't slide the whole focus ring: there is a separate ring at the camera end of the focus ring. I'm too used to the FA* lenses which disengage the body automatically when you set the lens to manual (and the clutch mechanism is much nicer in general). However it is still quite a fast operation as my fingers know where the body's focus selector switch is. I'll just need to mentally switch over when swapping between this lens and the 400mm FA*. Now if I end up liking this lens I may have to sell the beloved A* 300mm f/4 due to lack of use :( Tomorrow is a public holiday so I'll put some film in this body and have a play. Cheers, - Dave http://www.digistar.com/~dmann/
