This topic is going to haunt me for the rest of my days isn't it?

... and Yes I was the one who bought them.... and No, I didn't buy them for £179, and ... No, I did not go inside to buy it. And if I had probably I would have benefitted enough to put up with the old ghost sprouting its head once in a while to bring back the subject and I would definitely have made a full swoop and get hold of every copy of it from LHR

Wow, this sudden topic about wides and landscapes have really opened my eyes. And may I say pleasingly saved a few quid that is going to be put for a better use somehow .

Thank you very much for all your input on these, and sorry to the OP for hijacking the thread but it was unintentionally.

Gwyn, your idea of stitching images together sounds fantastic. Something that I knew about but had never crossed my mind that it could be put to use and probably get a better effect compared to even a wide angle image captured. And you are right, in Africa everything is so distant , and I am more prone to find a landscape with something of interest to turn it into a focal point very far rather than so close that I would need a wide angle lens.

Thank you all again .

You see, we can discuss equipment after all and benefit from it even to the point that one who is an outcast from the brand prespective still gets to learn a lot here

Definitely more than you can imagine even .
It might have gone a long way to save me a few quid actually.
Thanks for that

John, your comment regarding wide angle lenses really made me think deeper as this is something I am planning to acquire fairly soon. I am used to 18mm at the widest at the moment obviously also because that's the widest angle lens I have, mind you its a zoom and not a prime. I am about to travel to Africa for a few weeks and will be travelling a good extension of the Indian coast and was thinking I should get a wider zoom something like 12-24mm Siggy. But as you said just because its a wider angle it doesn't mean it suits the way a photographer "sees" the world.
And the huge open horizons where I will be travelling around perhaps even a slightly less wider zoom might be appropriate. I was even thinking that the bigma might come of great use in those circumstances, as there will be no shortage of light around, so lots to think about, rather than just getting a wider lens thinking its what its needed for landscapes.

The same has happened to me occasionally when using certain lenses that I might have just bought and tried, bad results for a good few days and then suddenly....Amazement at the great results. And then when looking back I realise that I had dived deep into researching and reading stuff around on how to make best use of the lens by tweaking the settings and PP details.
Having said that there are still a couple of lenses that I still can't get the IQ I would like to from them, and they are still sitting on the shelves hoping that I eventually will nail the best way to improve the images with them.

May be I should just persist and hopefully suddenly due to usage they might start giving excellent results . I might just give that a try, if you experienced that more than once with a camera then may be I should give it a try too.

Thanks Stefan,
Yup, I see the point and I really cannot dispute that.
And yes I agree, ideally SR should be turned off when on tripod.

I have tried with a prime 300mm coupled with the 1.4TC. and also a 70-200mm zoom. Quite extensively. Again my conclusions were the same. No difference at all, leaving IS on or off whle on a tripod. And although it wasn't a scientific test I carried but definitely it was a very methodical and extensive test. I wanted to make sure once and for all what the whole thing was. Was tired of forgetting my IS off when taking it off the tripod and shooting handheld.

That's exactly how I learnt my lesson . After a few films I started giving more attention to details and exposure levels, rather than shooting and then tweaking and then shooting again, until I would find the correct exposure.

This is one of the most astonishing comments regarding photography I have ever come across. But hey, I am just a newbie so you will have to excuse me if I am wrong.

It just doesn't make sense.

Have you ever wondered that may be you have learnt to expose the images better? I can guarantee you that any shifts in exposure makes a world of difference. Unless you are extremely good at PP then any minor flaws in exposure will show it ten folds. You would have to be extremely good in PP in order to hide those flaws even then, never completely.

Nail that exposure and you will notice a world of difference in your shots. I could bet my bottom dollar that its rather that the reason why you have better images now with your K7 compared to before than any stuff such as you mention about sensors being new and not performing well etc etc

Chris, this is the exact reason why I conducted an experiment, albeit with a non Pentax (sorry I didn't have any choice )

I was constantly forgetting my SR on when using the camera on a tripod. I am used to frequently change handheld to tripod and back again constantly even in the field. At times hand holding to shoot and occasionally sticking it on a tripod. And would be caught often with SR on after already a few shots taken. And when I would turn it off then suddenly handholding I would end up shooting a few frames with the SR off. Got sick and tired of that and decided to just leave it on all the time. And one day I went through the details of checking it up at home. Although non scientific but I tried to cover as many bases as possible, with the long macro lens I had, and also a long prime. My conclusion in the end: There was no difference between the shots taken on the tripod with SR on and off.
That was enough for me from then on to just leave my SR on all the time while in the field. Didn't want to risk catching myself shooting handheld with the IS, oops SR on.

But hey, this is just me, others might have a different experience, but just thought this might help someone who has been going through the same problems like me. May be I just eat too much cheese hence forgetting to turn the SR on when handholding if I have spent some time shooting with it off while on a tripod.