You can position the Slik one anyhow you like - even with the grip in front of the camera if you want.

Certainly I use it frequently, positioned to the side.

My tripod (Slik 88 ) is doubtless not the stiffest - but I chose it (many years ago now) as a compromise between weight, adjustability and rigidity, at a time when I couldn't afford the Benbo I really wanted.

However, it's been great - and although admittedly there's a slight movement when I let go, having positioned the camera on it, as the legs take its weight and bend slightly, I guess I'm so used to compensating by the tiny amount necessary that I just never notice it.

It doesn't vibrate noticeably, and I've never seen any evidence of camera shake when I use it with all the usual precautions.

I meant of how it attaches, so that you can see if it's similar to the top of your tripod. Let me know if you change your mind.
The AF2100 is perfectly fine with the K10D and the Pentax SMC-A 400mm, which is quite a beast.

Weight isn't so much the issue, I would have thought - it would take a lot to actually bend the legs. More a case of balance perhaps...

I think it's about 80 quid now - I saw it advertised somewhere recently for about that. I bought it for 50 quid many years ago, and thought it was expensive then... but in retrospect, it's probably one of the best accessories I've ever bought. Fantastic value for the use I've had out of it.

I'm just as dumb - I have no idea !!

And the grip doesn't interfere at all, whether upright, or turned to portrait. There's a slot in the body that lets it rotate sideways.

I'll take some pics if you like...

I've used one of these - a Slik AF2100 head for the last 15+ years.

Couldn't be simpler to use, and it's lasted brilliantly. Whatever it is that grips it tight when you let go of the handle is just as good now as it ever was. It'll support the entire weight of my tripod at an angle of 90 degrees to the vertical.

I still don't see why this makes a difference to Pentax.

I can see why the advertisers wouldn't like their ads next to obvious use of a competitor's product, but if they don't object, I can't see why Pentax would object to you using their product.

Sorry if I'm being dense.

I don't understand why Pentax's permission is needed to do something like this.

Ok, I googled "basic slr photography".

Found these:

http://www.all-things-photography.com/digital-slr.html

It's got a lot of information, and of course the example they use isn't Pentax, but it might be of interest, to start getting your head round the camera's controls and what they're for.

Also this:

http://www.webslr.com/

Which seems to be a semi-animated course on the very basic basics.

Haven't looked through them in great detail, but there's a lot of info there.

HTH.

I've given replies like that from time to time.

For very basic material, I think it's reasonable for people to do their own research, and ask for clarification of things they don't understand.

I think it's unreasonable to ask basic questions without even making a start oneself, and expect other people to either look up and post readily available links to the information, or indeed spend even more of their valuable time typing out explanations that are readily available.

In the latter cases, the asker is effectively saying "my time is too valuable to spend doing my own research, and other people (whose time is less valuable than mine) should do it for me".

This is an extraordinary generalisation.

Do you have any examples to support it?