When I got a 70-300 lens for my first digital camera I found it was too heavy for me but used with a tripod had some excelent results but it was far too heavy for me to hand hold although my friend seemed to cope with it. I tended to dip the lens as i pressed the shutter. So bought a monopod that was even worse try as I might could get the hang of it. My solution was to borrow a pentax K10 and 70-300mm lens much lighter and can manahe handheld if needs be.
So I inability to master a monopod got me to change to pentax as I recently bought my own K5.
Mine is Manfrotto 680B very well built have a ball head for it but I found cumbersome to carry about.

I think resricting lens will be a great way to learn and develope skills I dont yet have. Was thinking on trip to go just manual and then just 1 lens.
A while back I resricting my photo taking to just my iphone for a week. I know sounds daft but having to think more to get an aceptable image learnt alot about composition.

Lens recieved well packed and in good nick
Thanks Brian

Be a devil get it now can be an early birthday present. oh and isn't there a cashback deal on them now?

I'm not very good at leaving comments because I feel I'm not good/experieced enough to comment on other peoples work and often I like something but can't express why and on the other hand I might find something in an image distracting or off and yet again cant express why, so I dont often comment.
Have added you to my contacts on flickr though Dave.

Looking at images on here a fisheye of some discription is going to be my next buy . When I can save up enough LOL.

pm sent

The body was a buy it now at £25 from pics looked in good condition and description said working and a new battery fitted for the meter so remans to be seen. The lens I won I seemed to be the only bidder so that was a worry lol but I have had it a couple of weeks now and I have tried it on the K5 and its in good nick any faults with the photos is the photographers fault not the lens.
Alan I wouldn't worry about the camera fair unless its just after the 15th of the month, payday.

I should really stay off ebay on payday
Just bought a pentax ME super body to play with. I have a 50 mm 1.7 lens I got from ebay a few weeks ago. paid £25.99 for the camera and when i got the lens I won it for £30 so not expensive.
The main reason its a whim is because I'm notorious for exposing a roll of film then throwing it a drawer.I have a couple of toy cameras and a pentax 110 all of which I have been using but only had 1 film processed from my holga and 3 that had been thrown in the draw years ago. Think I'm a hopeless case. The upside is I have fun and the "old" film can have some interesting colour casts and the surprise of what's on the film makes it a bit like opening a birthday pressie.

30 years ago when I was an art student one of the tools we needed was a camera at the time all I could afford was a Zenith E and I was pushed to buy that. The collage had some of the large and medium format cameras that we got to use.But I was always conscious of the idea that to be a pro photographer you needed all these expensive cameras and anything else was laughed out of the door. I didn't at that time do a lot of photography a short course to learn the basics which was compulsory and the what I needed for my Textile course and what I shot for pleasure. Over that time I saw some stunning shots taken on "cheap" cameras and some rubbish taken on some "top end" cameras. These findings have carried on over the years.

In conclusion its a mixture of snobbery and people taking photos for a living placing a mystic over the process. The arrival of digital has opened the world up to everyone. I feel now the only thing that sorts the wheat from the chaff is the image and the eye that made it.

Hey we all like to use tools that feel and look good and are of high quality but often this makes equipment for the elitist. Ok there is some envy in my comments too.