The 3rd one for me. I don't know if you ever saw any of
Ernst Hass's work with things like bullfights. Some of
them are in the slideshow here:

http://www.ernst-haas.com/

He died in 1986 so non of his work was digital.

A £1 for a very slow reader that will only do about 4MB/s when
20MB/s is possible is a rip-off Put them in the bin where
they belong People buying junk puts good firms off making
better products. Quite soon Poundland will be the only shop
in the UK

Some of the Sandisk readers especially the white free ones are slow

I've never seen an eSATA SD Card reader. I'll buy one if they ever
come out because I use an eSATA external HDD. It's unlikely they
will ever come out because the fastest card is about 30MB/s and
eSATA can easily do 60MB/s.

USB3 readers may appear when all the Poundland junk has
been sold.

If it comes to me by mistake, I'll forward it onto you
sometime in November

Excellent shot and from a very nice angle. All the detail of the top
of the bird is clearly visible. The tonal range in bright sunlight
is too much to capture properly so a little bit of burning out is
preferable to darkening everything else.

That heads very similar to the Cullmann one which I have on one of these.

Unfortunately you can't take the head off so I've put a Susis B&S on top of it. The multipod is a good idea, but could do with a few changes, such as changeable feet. The suckers are OK for inside (or outside)of the car, but no use say against a tree. It's quite steady used as a monopod with the two legs either pushing against your shoulders or under you armpits, bit awkward in use as well, but steady.

If a single axis head were such a good idea it's strange neither Gitzo or Linhof make one. You could quite easily kick the monopod with your foot or catch it on a stone whilst carrying it and something will have to give, because it's acting like a rigid crow bar.

Makes me laugh when I see the getting away with statements
like 10/10 for mechanical condition. Trading Standards have
become a joke in this country.

Impossible to pan on a monopod leaning over at 30deg

Land Surveyors use a similar tool with a refelector/target on top called a detail pole or pogo stick. It has an accurate bubble level to keep it vertical, but it's well known that it can't be kept still (hence the name detail pole), so for accurate work such as trig stations they use a tripod.

The best solution would be an extra leg. Cut a leg off a cheap tripod. Still quicker than a tripod.

When I said over the shoulder I meant in the same way that you would rest a cricket bat going from batting position to over shoulder.

Personally I always use a small rigid tripod, similar to the Leica one and rest 2 legs on my shoulders. I either remove the 3rd leg or rest it against my chest. It's almost as good as a heavy tripod.

Ripoff and Co have one for £499.99 +£8.99 post that's had the
pin sawn off to fit a Canon (thought that devalued it) They've
actually rated it 10/10 mechanically ? link

As usual non Pentax front cap unless you buy one as an extra.

Well tapping a lens with a hammer will certainly disturb all the dust
and possibly a few elements

The pros will have proper tools to straighten a filter thread.

I regret not buying one of these 10 years ago when they were going for
about £70 for the 'M' or 'K'

About 20 years ago the Canon f/1.2 was £235 so I would expect the
Pentax one to be about the same.

A monopod is a very poor support, but there's nothing wrong with
a decent ball head such as a small Linhof, otherwise you have to
lean the monopod away from vertical and then apply extra force to
steady it. To stand any chance the monopod needs to be vertical.
It's also safer if the monopod gets a sudden jar the ball
will slip before ripping the threaded socket out of your camera.

It's better to use a monopod over your shoulder like a rifle.