I really like the first three shots...hard to choose a favourite...great contrast and sharpness.

I'm not so keen on the bench..but hey, 3 out of 4 isn't too bad.

regards

Karlo

That Tamron seems great value...lovely and sharp with nice colour rendition as well...the new Pentax 70-200 is going to have to be exceptionally good to justify a price tag almost 4 times as much as the Tamron.

Do you not have a national register of creepy crawlies 'down under' that you could refer to?!

Imagine what a fearsome beast it would be scaled up x100.

Thanks for sharing.

karlo

Buying from within the EU isn't a problem..in fact its your best overall 'foreign' option ...the chance to shop around and get all the same benefits as though bought at home...Buying from outside the EU though I would never buy a camera body...just wouldn't want to risk it as there is too much potentially to go faulty...i'd be more willing to risk a lens...but only if it had a reputation as reliable and robust...best of all are accessories like lens caps/cases etc where there's nothing really to worry about although then the savings are usually much smaller...often not worth the effort.

Chris, don't beat yourself up about this...the vast majority of people on this site have only good things to say about you, your company and its staff. Most people following this thread won't have had any experience of owning and running a 'small' (relatively speaking) retail business and can't appreciate how much of a tightrope you often have to tread...piggy in the middle.

The 'Big Boys' offering the remote impersonal experience like Amazon, Argos with their huge scale can afford to replace stuff 'no questions asked' because they don't have to worry about being recompensed by the OEM...they simply return the customer rejects and expect full refunds...or they will stop dealing with that manufacturer. Smaller retailers don't have the clout to be able to dictate those terms...I know because i've been there several times myself.

Its a sign of the cut throat nature of the business that some manufacturers will try it on with smaller retail customers to try and limit their costs. My sympathies lie with both Neil and SrS and i'm sure a solution will eventually emerge as Chris implies...I know how frustrating it can be trying to get anywhere with Ricoh as do many others judging by the online comments one reads.

Finally, my last point again in support of Chris/SRS...How many other small business owner operators do you know who would be so concerned / upset that they are giving up/possibly ruining their saturday night (22:30) to personally answer criticism online? The sign of a great retailer is how they respond when things get tough not when everything is hunky dory.

Best wishes for a speedy resolution,

Karlo

Still leaves you with the dilemma of whether or not to have your 17-70 serviced. I'm guessing that it would probably cost close to about £90-£100 to have it serviced...seem to be fixed price charges for these sort of things where you tend to lose out financially for minor repairs but gain if its something more major.

Given that you've already had six years out of it and the used value as it is is probably less than £100 if it were me i'd be tempted to just carry on with it until it no longer worked and then try and get a bit back selling it for 'spares or repair'. You're not going to get your money back if you were to sell it after its been serviced given that a new Sigma 17-70 (latest model) is just £299. It would only be financially worth keeping if you could pretty much guarantee you'd get several more years out of it after the service..or if you wanted to keep it for sentimental reasons!

The 16-85 is likely to drop again in price for a few days sometime round Easter time although whether it dips to £349 again...who knows..you might need to wait until June/July for that to happen again.

Then again the internet is awash with blogs from the financial sector warning of another imminent crash 2008 style...RBS apparently have advised all their wealthy 'managed account' customers to offload all their stocks and shares immediately...talk is of Wall Street and London markets losing between 15-20% with the FTSE 100 being even harder hit due to its dependence on mining and energy companies which are currently tanking...if all this comes about then ALL photo gear will be on very deep discount for the rest of the year and the new FF will be selling for £999 !

I haven't used either but my thoughts for what they are worth are that the 16-85 looks a fabulous buy at the £349 it was recently sold for (albeit very briefly) but there's no way I would pay over £400 for it...in fact given that Pentax have twice sold it for £349 now over the past year I wouldn't pay more than this for it.

As smudge says though it does have some great attributes, particularly when compared to 17-50s and 17-70s and most of the user reviews i've read have been very positive.

I agree with the general sentiment expressed above about Ricoh as a company...its a complete basket case.

For a global corporation with turnover of about $18 Billion (say £13 Billion) the way it treats its customers is an absolute disgrace. I've been waiting for the princely sum of £40 cashback dating back to receipt of my claim at their promotional HQ all the way back to 1st August last year. They should have paid out within 6 weeks at the latest) yet here I am 5.5 months later having to contact them via Tech Support in Holland because there's no other way from the UK to speak to anyone directly connected to sales/marketing/customer support. The money would be useful but its more the principle now...they just don't seem interested...even their tech support guys can't understand why they don't provide a customer contact address/email/tel no.

I've asked them to add another £5 onto my money to partly compensate me for my time and expense...after three phonecalls and 2 emails to Holland i'm getting a bit fed up now...turns out its HQ in France that is the problem. I'll give it another week then i'll be asking to speak direct with their European CEO...David Mills I think, unless he's gone

Ricoh Corporate tagline is "imagine.change" Hmmm....I can, if I were in charge there would be quite a few changes starting from very near the top.

Just noticed this offer on the EBAY site of Camera Centre UK, from South Wales...full EU Pentax warranty
as well. Cheapest i've ever seen it.

I really like them Nigel...No.3 if I had to pick, but they all look good against the grey background or natural foliage. I've not used a flashgun since my 35mm days about a decade ago! I did read somewhere that flashguns designed for film cameras were apt to damage digital cameras due to high voltages? Don't know whether this is true or not but luckily I was never tempted to use one of my older flashes as the high ISO performance of modern cameras made them unnecessary.

Still life though is an area that they still excel in...so I might be tempted to try a basic flash sometime.

Karlo