Merry Christmas Jack and everyone else who haven't read me saying that
I've heard about the floods, hopefully nobody gets hurt and isn't the damage great.

Yes me too, the Pentax 18-250 seemed like a very nice walk around lens and later when you get some primes or higher quality lenses then you notice that it's has some compromises.
All in all it's a very decent lens though for the range he has.
I will probably go just out with the primes you've, it was one of the reasons why I wanted a DSLR for the primes and the specialize lenses.

Just call the shop and see if they can make you an offer with the DA lenses instead of the DAL version, most of them probably can do something for you.

I bought the DA*50-135 just before the price hike and ordered it from SRS and let it ship to me when the Pound was week against the Euro so I had for a very good price, almost half the price what it is in the shops now.

Not with the DAL lenses but the DA are the same optic wise.
The DA 55-300 is regarded as the best zoom in that budget range so can't do wrong with that and it looks like an upgrade.

I had the Pentax DA 18-250 and it was the same quality as the 18-55 kit lens but like you said the 18-250 is soft at the wide/long end and I found myself using the DFA100mm a lot with the 18-55 but when I bought the DA40 I hardly use the zooms any more certainly not the DA18-250. So I sold that lens and bought a DA*50-135 which is just perfect for me.

It's pretty much all up to you what you want.
I would try to go for the DA version myself instead of the DAL because of quik-shift (which DAL doesn't have) but everyone use their lenses differently, so you might not feel it as a limitation.

Sounds good Davex, hopefully you get them soon.
If you're going to add flash to your photography you suddenly have the feeling that everything is twice as complicated.

I've the one with the led light, was the only one they had at the time in the shop but I must say I find it nice that the light is there. You see what you're doing with the brush inside your camera.
With the led version you can also replace the brush over time I believe, ain't sure so don't take my word for it.

This was already posted earlier I believe.
I'm only using DNG for raw and it does not slow down my PC, it opens the preview image just as fast as with JPG files.
I also at least can still navigate without problems while he is loading the previews.
Of course Results may varies per PC.
I'm using windows 7 64bit on an AMD atlhon 2x 2.75ghz and 2gb of ram so not spectacular.

I'm sorry to hear that, still I hope you make the best of it as you can and I wish you some quiet shifts for the Christmas.

Davex, what flash did you used now?

Sssshhh, I was trying to be sad.

First Christmas I'm going out with a part of my family and after that I'm going to my mother so that I'm there from second Christmas till new year, so we aren't doing nothing with Christmas.

How does Christmas look like in the UK, pretty much like the one in the USA?

Yes Davex, sometimes the Gods are doing everything they can to ruin your photos, so fair enough you use the flash to beat them.