Hi I have just acquired - and have been using - a late version SMC 500 4.5, I also have an SMC-A 400 5.6. The telephoto effect and the compression of planes is much more noticeable with the 500mm lens. The manual diaphragm is a slight drag but not too bad with an auto camera. I focus at f4.5 and then close the diaphragm down to shoot and let auto take care of the shutter speed. I imagine it will be a pain on a manual only body. The 500 is a beast, my Manfrotto 055 with heavy duty ball head is not really man enough for the job, interestingly a bean bag kinda works better. It is heavy and cumbersome and you have to want to use it.
It's listed at £2,400 on the Pentax UK site. I saw mine advertised on Loot.com for £195 - as you can imagine I grabbed it - when I went to collect, I was told I had been the only interested party!!!! I would say it's worth paying anything up to £800 for a good late one. It really depends on how much you want it and whether you're prepared to lug the thing about. AB __________________________________________________________________________ Join Freeserve http://www.freeserve.com/time/ Winner of the 2003 Internet Service Providers' Association awards for Best Unmetered ISP and Best Consumer Application.
