The tamron 1.4 or the Kenko 1.5, there simply isn't anything else, there was an pentax 1.4 on the roadmap but not anymore.

The newest version of the tammy and the kenko can be used with SDM so the newer KAF3 lenses (DA 17-70 + newer DA*) would still have autofocus, the Pentax 1.7 has his own autofocus but is mighty expensive.

ps. it's been said that the tammy and thee kenko are the same, but tamron is hard to come by these days.

Edit: I see you have the sigma 50-500 if you planned to use it on that you will have limitations with those named above and you need to use Sigma I believe. I'm sure that somone here can explain that.

This one have articles about the technical bits and pieces.
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials.htm

I also have another side which is very good readable about the basics of photography, need to look it up though

Andrew don't worry much about it, simply know what you can do with it and you're more then fine. Just keep it simple and have fun.

I simply discarded the neck-strap and using a wrist-strap now, might that also be a solution?

Wonderfull shots and all has already been said before by two gentlemen.

Using a monopod does ask for some practice though (still learning myself), have you tried for some shot with longer exposures yet?

Very creative shots, I like them.
Nothing more to say really there is nothing wrong with them so... I'm speachless or to inexperience to see anything

What is that in the 3th shot btw?

You make a good point there but lens choice is also important to chose a system so it has value.

The one on the Tokina site has the same lens arangement as Pentax so image quality wise they should atleast be equal, Pentax coating is better then that of Tokina. The only thing Tokina wins in is the money, it's a bit cheaper.

Yes I do agree, sorry for the generalization and thank you for correcting me Martin.
With some I mean those who are saying that of cours, if they were Dutch or anythingg else I would have said the same thing about them so the fact that they are German doesn't mean a thing indeed.

They have there fame a number of times indeed, very sad as you said.
I wonder where they get there idea from, I never readed that God punished anyone in the Bible.

No one ever said it was an terrorist attack.

Like Pwynnej said, he lost his job.
He was working at the security of the royal family and well he wanted revange maybe... we will never know.

Here is the latests news.
Still 6 in the hospital, 3 womens, 1 man and 2 girls (8 & 14 years).
The girls are doing well but 1 woman is still critical condition but is stable.

Some crazy Germans are disturbing a curch service in Apeldoorn saying it is punishment of god... maybe we should hang them

Yes but EXIF is only text on what settings your camera was on not real information/data.
It's a bit hard to explain what RAW is...
It's more codes instead of pixels, the pixels aren't locked yet it's simply information of the amound of light a pixel of a sensor gets plus information from the camera to form it into a photo.

I'm not 100% sure about this but that is my understanding behind it.

To put it simpeler.
With TIFF a pixel is an combination of an amount red, green and blue.
With RAW a pixel is also build up with red, green and blue but that's only what you see. The values RGB is built up with the information from the sensor but a pixel on the sensor isn't RGB but red, green or blue so it needs information of the pixel beside it to make an average RGB value, therefor is information needed from the camera and lots more. So with cropping 50% you only delete the RGB information from the sensor but not the rest of the stuff needed to make an photo out of raw data.

*sighs* a bitter pill or not?
Read this it might help.
camera sensor - link
RAW - link
Jpeg & tiff - link
There are many more things such as bit depth so take a look http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials.htm