I really like those, great abstract feel to them and would make good 'wall art'. The shiny blacks contrasting with the off whites remind me of a Killer whale.

My favourite would be No.4..love the 'lighter' less menacing look to it compared to some of the others. All good though.

regards

Karlo

It would cost me more than i'm waiting for Jonathan! It would be nice to get the matter resolved before the end of the year though.

As per the title..bought a K50 with kit lens in July, sent in the claim at the end of July and should have been paid within 6 weeks (say mid October).

I rang the original cashback tel. no which is no longer operating so rang the 0207 number which i think connects with Ricoh HQ in France as I spoke to someone who was obviously French. He was very polite, spoke excellent English and took my details and said he'd look into it for me...this was nearly three weeks ago.

Still nothing as of this morning when I checked my bank account, so rang the 0207 number again and spoke to the same person who again took my details. Apparently there have been a number of claims which haven't yet for some reason been paid out on. He couldn't tell me why. He said that I would be paid 'eventually' but couldn't tell me when it might be...

Not very impressed at all. I jumped through all the hoops requested when sending my claim in, paid extra for 'signed for' delivery...apparently a "Tony" signed for it at 0948am on 1st August.

Its only for £40 but until I get re-imbursed I haven't really got the good deal I thought I was getting at the time. If other people have been affected as well then my case is obviously not a 'one off'.

Hopefully i'll be able to report soon that the money has been transferred into my account...only takes a minute or so to do...in the meantime i'll be a bit more wary of any more Pentax cashbacks.

The 18-135WR is currently priced at 449 Euros on Amazon.FR....the same price as the K50+18-135 !

Effectively its a buy the K50 and get the 18-135 free or the other way round. What i'm saying is that it would be nice for UK consumers to be able to get deals like this. This particular example is not affected by currency / exchange rate considerations...although I accept that as a general rule this past year has favoured UK consumers prepared to buy from other EU countries.

The French price delivered to the UK and taken in Sterling on your card is £351.92 according to my dummy run...the identical item on Amazon UK is £531.64..a difference of £179.72.

Once again the UK consumer seems to be getting a raw deal. Even when Amazon had it on deep discount a couple of weeks ago it was much dearer than the French price.

Great news Gareth..very well done..and a smashing image to boot. What a fab Christmas present.

regards

Karlo

Photorumors seem to be on the ball as usual. Two images to view
although to be honest very uninspiring subject matter.

I'm speculating that the release of these now is intended to ensure that the early adopters who Ricoh will be hoping will buy the first FF, don't fritter away all their FF cash before the release date!

I agree that the lens looks really sharp...and as you say, for the price and with a years warranty from SRS it does seem like a good purchase.

I never really got into the Star Wars thing myself but as LennyBloke says you both looked like you were having a great time.

regards

Karlo

In the past few years i've bought new photographic gear from SRS, Park Cameras and WEX and been very happy with the service and prices from each...and there are other Independents which I might have bought from but they were out of stock or the price was slightly higher than another Independent I was happy to use ...the point is as long as we all value and use these dealers (and they continue to offer great service) then hopefully they will still be around in a few years time.

As I started this thread i'm happy to bring it to a close before it gets any more personal and out of hand! I've made a point I feel strongly about and hopefully others have had their say.

Turning back to the bargain hunting...isn't it normally about now that the Pentax £40 - £80 off offers make a re-appearance on the cheaper bodies and some lenses? !!

Geoff, Yes, Luxembourg does appear to be central to this issue. Perhaps it could be broken up as a country and its regions shared out between its immediate neighbours? Just a suggestion...

John...in ten years time when all our independent retailers have gone under and we can only buy from a handful of global retail giants we'll all be paying a lot more for everything because we won't have a choice. This country will have lost the tax revenue from the businesses that have been forced to close down meaning higher taxes to 'compensate' the Treasury and will gain nothing from the Luxembourg based 'shell' companies operating from there.

You're right about this being an issue for Government...I seem to remember our Chancellor making some noises before the General Election...but that's probably the extent of it. It took a very long time before the VAT loophole was closed that allowed retailers to set up in Jersey and Guernsey undercutting mainland dealers. Open, honest competition is fine John...but that is not what we have today.