In Firefox 2, when I click on an image, it opens in a separate tab on its own, at a larger size - presumably the size of the original, judging by a couple of my own.

I don't understand this. There aren't any large images now. And with the content fixed size, I can't see why resizing the browser to hide the ads wouldn't do it.

But why should I have to resize the browser all the time? Especially if, as I usually do, I have other sites in other tabs.

As I said, I think the issue is the fixed content width. If it resized, the ads wouldn't be so big in comparison.

The other big downside of the fixed content width is posted images.

The quality of the resizing is very variable, and at worst it's appalling. So what do we do? Resize all our images for 550px to make sure that they aren't trashed by the forum when it resizes them?

Knickers to that idea, I say.

OMG.

I hadn't realised there were so many ads - I have Adblock, a Firefox extension that suppresses most adverts.

When you said "12", I disabled it to see what you were seeing, and I agree with you.

This is WAY TOO MUCH ADVERTISING.

I also note that there is no longer the option to use different font sizes or colours.

In fairness, the ads in the right-hand column aren't any larger than they were before, AFAIR. And we don't pay for forum membership, so although I hate ads, I can't really complain at their presence unless they're intrusive.

Which they are now - because the real issue, and possibly the worst of the lot, is the fixed size of the actual content. If they could make it so that the content resizes with the browser, but the ads stay the same size, it would be a whole lot better.

It also means that we can't see one another's comments.

This will mean that you'll get huge numbers of duplicated reports - or none on some subjects because people will assume someone else has already reported it.

It's all very well wanting a nice tidy bug-tracking system, but it's counterproductive in some ways.

What you really want (as well as a way of ticking off the things you fix) is this thread - where people scream and yell about the things they hate.

You may not think you want it, but you should, if you want the quickest and most thorough user feedback.

I would suggest you task someone to create bug reports based on people's comments here, as well as using our bug-reports when we create them. Then you get the ability to manage, without making it hard for people to get ideas on where to look for bugs, from others' feedback.

Reserving judgement for now, until I'm a bit more used to it. In the meantime:

- there seems to be no way of previewing PM replies.

- some of the images have very jagged edges when reduced to the new size

- some of the images don't load full size when clicking on them, the page just hangs. I found this with a couple of mine, which were perfectly Ok when loaded into a separate browser.

What is this preference for silver?

I've always thought the black ones look much nicer, although I expect a silver one shows scratches less, not that I'd know.

Fair cop!!

Hmm. Well the one I had was a silver one, and I didn't think much of it, especially at the long end, which is where you'd want it.

Why would there be an optical difference between black and silver? I could imagine variation between one-off instances of each, but they're supposed to be the same, surely?

If the 300-320 part of the range isn't too important, you might consider selling the 80-320 (it'll fetch £100-120 if it's in very good condition or better), and getting the 55-300 for about £220 from SRS when he gets some in stock.

Then there's virtually no gap, you end up with a new, much better long zoom (it would appear from early reports), and still only have to cart two lenses around.

And it's cost you not much more than £100.