Hi,

"AP's overall scores were 86%,94% and 88%"

Please, please, do not fall into the trap of using hoplessly over-simplistic magazine rating scores to judge lenses by, especially from AP who have proved in the past their testing regime is often flawed AND they certainly have their bias towards certain makers.

This is the magazine who for years used a ship moored on the Thames to judge lens sharpness by until a person reading AP pointed out to them that as the tide changes, even heavy ships moored will move around...so they suddenly realised they had been shooting a moving target which overnight meant all their sharpness tests for years were junk.

cheers Steve.M.

It is amazing what photos you can get if you look hard enough within easy walking distance of your house....just walk around and see what you find...

Hi,

If anyone fancies something different, try these:

http://figitalrevolution.com/bare-bones-bag-camera-bag-leica-lomo-lca-zeiss-rang...

http://www.cambags.com/

http://www.timbuk2.com/tb2/cms/hackKits/camera_bag.htm

http://www.tiffen.com/products.html?tablename=domke

http://www.artisanandartist.com/

cheers Steve....

..are you going to Beirut?...or Croydon?.....

Thanks Davex...you beat me to it...

cheers Steve.M.

Hi,

Very useful explanation on "my lens is soft" "my lens front/back focuses"....particularly relevant to K20D owners...

http://www.lensrentals.com/news/2008.12.22/this-lens-is-soft-and-other-myths

cheers Steve.

Hi,

Looks like a useful blog...

http://www.ok1000pentax.com/

cheers Steve.

Hi,

Just to say I have two very, very high quality camera bags on the much talked about ebay site at the moment...a rare FOGG bag, made in London, similar to Billingham (only better) and a Marini (France) real super black leather bag by a UK Leica dealer.

I hope I am ok to put this in the classifieds..

cheers Steve.

"I don't know who or where these "many eBayers" are you mention, but I've never noticed such high fees as they claim"

This 17% figure is an approx complete 'take' in fees if you combine all the fees you as an ebay seller are charged. You add the listing fee, the FVF fee and the Paypal fee...if you add all these and take an average the normal combined fee take is in the order of 17%..before the latest FVF rise. You can do the sums yourself...just add all the fees and work out the percentage take from the final bid price....

Hi folks,

Have you guys who post next day forgotten that the majority of people actually work Mon-Fri? Many private ebay sellers have no chance to reach a PO in the week. Getting to one in your lunch time is usually just not possible..even if you could cart all the parcels to work with you.

You must be lucky in either having flexi work patterns, being unemployed or retired, working p/t or having a very local PO. My personal 'irritation' is the ever growing number of very impatient people..especially on ebay. Everyone seems to want their items within 24-48 hours, which in many cases is simply not realistic.

I live in a large urban town and yet we had 10 local PO's closed two years ago and another 8 closed in the latest cuts a few months ago.

I start a new job soon and like thousands of other private ebayers will be working M-F with no access to a PO until Saturday mornings...

cheers Steve.