Electronic level calibrator, and low tungsten light AF fix, obviously

Thanks - I've ordered it. It's about time I learned how to use the thing properly

Definitive, as in up towards the advanced end of the spectrum?

Today is the last day of my Amazon Prime trial, so I want to use it for something

Do you mean this one, John?

Any particular reason you've posted such huge image files?

If you really mean MUP mode, then as you say, it's pretty hard to select accidentally.

You hadn't saved MUP as one of the user modes, and switched to that, by any chance?

Or switched to 2s delay? That's pretty hard to do accidentally too, of course.

If it just happened randomly, while you were taking ordinary pictures, then it sounds highly suspect to me.

The first thing to do when the camera does something really weird like that, is remove the battery. If that cures it, you can at least proceed, but if it recurs often, or if removing the battery doesn't cure it, then it's a trip to the camera doctor, I'd think.

That's an excellent point, actually. I know a guy who used to photograph dance events for a living, and he used Canon. He had a 1D and a 5D, IIRC, and whenever we got on to the topic of AF, his bitching and moaning about the utter uselessness of Canon AF would put the worst of our puny efforts to shame.

I don't know. Why don't you hire one for a few days?

The most thorough review I've seen of the 18-135 is the Photozone.de one. They complain mostly about the edge sharpness, and certainly my brief experience with it bore out their comments. Unless I was unlucky and had a particularly bad one, you'd have to be pretty undiscerning to miss this particular flaw, especially with buildings at the longer end of the range.

That said, at the shorter end of the range, I found it pretty good, and as many have commented, the handling is a delight.

For hillwalking, it's probably a lot better than it is for towns, since the soft edges will be less obvious than when there are buildings at the edges of the frame.

It's also a lot less money now than it was a few months ago. Around 300 quid it's not bad value, whereas when it was around 400, it was way too expensive for the quality.

The thing is, almost any zoom you buy will fall short of the IQ of the Pentax-A 50mm - this is a very bad comparison to pick, since you'll always be disappointed.

The bottom line is, if you're fussy about edge-sharpness, the 18-135 probably won't cut it for you. If you're not, it probably will, especially at the shorter end, where it's at its best.

TBH, if you're really considering spending 700 quid, the 2mm at the short end of the 16-50 may well be more important, especially on the hills.

For the 16-50, you only need to spend 600 at the moment, in any case!

Sorry, I should have posted earlier. Sale agreed, pending payment.