I've been trying to get a reliable answer on using CVS to backup my digital images to a linux box on the LAN and/or an external drive or RAID array. I'm certain there are more than a few solutions, but I have yet to find them.
I'm not going to lecture about the wide variety of M42 screw-mount lenses. They're all over the place. You can get some amazing lenses, and for very little money.
What I'm going to talk about here is the practicalities of hooking one up to your Pentax *ist DS digital SLR.
First things first: In order to use an M42 lens, you'll need a K-mount to M42 adaptor. Pentax sells these, and I think there are a few other companies making them. I found mine at Jim's Used Cameras in Seattle, Washington. Search ebay and you'll find a dozen hits. Not hard to find.
Computer Darkroom is a decent collection of tutorials dealing with digital photography. Including a bunch of good info about Photoshop's File Browser.
I find it interesting that there are former ammo factories in, say, Belarus, which have been converted into plants for making photographic lenses.
The lenses are cheap and of decent quality (most of the time), and perfect for a good-enough-ian such as myself.
Discovering groundglass.ca, which is a pretty spiff photoblog.
Some web sites dealing with Pentax equipment.
Bojidar Dimitrov's Pentax K-Mount Page is a very thorough and detailed source of information about every piece of Pentax K-mount hardware imaginable. The problem is that the information stops at the *ist film camera. Apparently, this site was in jepaordy of being shut down by Mr. Dimitrov, but the hue and cry of his fans has purchased a reprieve. He says he's going to start updating the information and adding new entries, but it'll likely be slow going.
Note: I wrote this a while back, when the *ist DS wasn't three product cycles ago... However, the advice should still apply, even to the K100D, the K110D, the K10D, and the Samsung GX-10. In the case of the K10D and the GX-10, stop-down metering is accomplished with the green button, rather than AE-lock.
The *ist DS is a nifty neeto digital SLR camera made by Pentax.
This is an online book about photography. It appears here as I write it.
What will happen is that as I learn things, or as I explain them to others, that information will end up here. It will get re-sorted and re-organized as I go along.
Comments will be evaluated and added into the material, and thus it will be a collaborative effort. I'm just the instigator and editor, so please comment!
I'm getting a lot of referrers from Google, looking for the Fremont Solstice Parade 2005.