Welcome to the forum, Bart. My first foray into digital SLRs has been with a GX-10 and I'm delighted with it. The Park Cameras website lists the body-only price at £319 but their ad in the June 27 AP says £289, which would be a ridicuously low price for a camera of this capability. I wouldn't think twice if I were you.

Cheers, Al

A busty "blond" would surely be a transsexual. On top of Nigerian spammers, this is all we need!

Al

Hi Yves,

Have a good time in Prince George. I've never been there but know many people who have and they all left with a hangover for some reason. It sounds like fun. Unfortunately, I won't get any closer to PG in July than Aberdeen in Scotland, where I now live, but I'd love a trip to Montreal. I'll certainly look you up if I get there.

Cheers

Al

It's important for everyone to understand that only Canucks from the east coast are "crazy" and likely to contravene forum rules. Canadians from the west coast are universally mild-mannered, self-effacing and a credit to their Anglo-Saxon heritage. Just check out any British Columbia logging town on a Saturday night to confirm this.

Al (half a Canuck)

I used two Vivitar lenses on my Minolta XK in the 70s - a 28mm f2.5 and an 85-205 f3.8. Both are marked "Made in Japan" and have the serial numbers 22415319 and 22520004 respectively. I don't recall much about the image quality (age takes its toll) but I was a reporter/photographer at the time and the quality must have been fine or I would have been sacked. There must also have been some favourable reviews or I wouldn't have bought them in the first place. Other than that, it's all a blur (my recollection, not the lenses).

Cheers

Al

Luckily, in the north of Scotland, the sun isn't a huge problem, Tony.

Al

There have been interminable complaints in this forum about "bad copies" of expensive lenses. I've yet to see one from someone who's plastic lens mount has failed. I bought what turned out to be a DAL 50-200 lens when the advertising led me to believe it was the original Quick Focus metal-mount lens complete with lens cap. It wasn't. But I was reassured by the gurus on this forum that the two were optically identical. And they seem to be. Sadly, a lens hood for the DAL costs nearly as much as the lens itself. Seems like a golden opportunity for a down-at-heel plastic-moulding company in Britain to diversify. It couldn't cost them more than 50p to produce one.

Al

You have to consider your personal safety above all else. If you have any concerns about venturing into an area at whatever time of day, don't do it. I'm 6ft plus and there are parts of Aberdeen (Scotland) where I wouldn't think of going at night alone, with or without a camera, even after a couple of pints of Dutch courage. Having said that, fears are often ill-founded, but it's not worth taking the risk. Find a friendly bouncer (if there are any about at that time of the morning) or an ex-French Foreign Legionnaire to go with you next time.

Look after yourself.

Al

I'm fed up. Bought a second-hand (apparently "demonstrator") AF-360FGZ from SRS on May 19. It arrived in double-quick time but the control wheel to adjust settings didn't work most of the time, whether I advanced it one "click" at a time or turned it quickly. SRS told me to return it and swiftly sent it to Pentax for repair. It arrived back some weeks later -- and the problem was as bad as ever. I then contacted Pentax/Johnsons Photopia directly, sent it back for another attempt at repair and I picked it up from the courier today. Guess what. The b****y wheel still doesn't do what it should do nine times out of 10. Has anyone else had a control wheel problem on this flash? Don't the Johnsons Photopia technicians check equipment after "repairing" it. Or am I doing something wrong, ie selecting the setting I want to change with the "S" button and turning the damned wheel when the setting is blinking? There. That's off my chest now. Thanks for listening.

Al no-flash

EDIT NEXT MORNING: Sorry guys ... I bought it on March 19, not May 19. If it really had been last month. I wouldn't be half as annoyed. Thanks for your comments.

I've just spent a pleasant couple of hours with a friend who's a professional ornitholgist and uses binoculars around the £1,000 mark. He recommends a pair of 8 or 10 magnification, ideally 8. Above that, he says, you can't hold them steady enough without a tripod to get a stable image and the higher-magnification models "lose definition". I couldn't pin him down on a brand that sells for £100 or so but I suspect any name you have heard of will do the job. I use a pair of 8x40 Bushnell InstaFocus I bought about 30 years ago and can't fault them, even in very low light.

Good luck in your search

Al