Talking of the weight of the 50-135mm...

I found last night while attempting to photograph the moon that it balances much better if I fit a flash to the camera (AF201SA in this case). The extra weight evens things up nicely and I'll probably leave it on now when using the lens. It doesn't make the combination that much larger and it makes good ballast, even when I don't need to use it.

It is small when compared to other constant aperture telephoto zooms, but I'll agree by Pentax standards it's a pretty sizable lens.

You could always look for one of the older Pentax 100-300mm (ish) zooms if money's tight. I found an F 100-300mm f4.5-5.6 for £60 shortly after buying my K-m a couple of years ago and was very happy with it for that outlay.

Stainless steel pans and scrambled egg do not mix (or, more correctly, they stick together like superglue).

I've ended up buying a cheap non-stick aluminium pan just for scrambled eggs, they don't stick to that!

Well, what do you have that nobody else is likely to turn up with? Distinctive vehicles make it much easier to remember where you parked...

Yeah, that had me slightly baffled too!

Of course, if you buy a new Pentax lens from SRS you get a two year guarantee. This is why I'm not worried about the SDM problems which appeared early on in the production life of the lens (plus I suspect Pentax have upgraded it as I don't seem to see many recent posts about this, suggesting that older lenses were more prone and the design has been improved).

Ahh, that would explain a lot. I thought it a bit odd as obviously they have OS, which seems to have been the most recent update for many Sigma lenses.

I've no idea to be honest. I'm just putting two and two together from the fact that at least a couple of sellers seem to have them new for well below RRP. I may quite well be coming up with five (it could just as likely be the case that Pentax decided to reduce them to improve their cashflow after the natural disasters in Japan), the actions of large companies often make little sense!

I'd just find 70mm a bit too long for situations where I'm likely to want a small, discreet camera. Something in the 28mm-35mm range is more useful to me as a walkabout lens to clip on before exploring a city centre and grabbing a few shots on the way.

From what I understand SRS have/had a few of the previous model remaining, these were the cheaper ones. I'm not sure what Sigma changed but the previous generation is absolutely fine, although I found that it struggled to lock focus at the 500mm end when I borrowed one a while ago.

TBH for motorsport I'd consider f6.3 too slow, especially when it struggles to lock onto the subject (which I strongly suspect was due to the aperture - my other lenses are fine and I notice my lenses around f2.4/f2.8 don't hunt even in quite low light). In your position I'd take your DA* 200mm, maybe buy one of the Pentax AF teleconverters to get a little more reach.

I would go for the 50-135mm for now. That way if you find that you can live with the size of it (not that big or heavy a lens for an f2.8 zoom really) then you don't need to buy the 70mm later on.

I do suspect that Pentax intend replacing this lens - why else are they popping up for well below RRP? I ignored them initially as I didn't think they were affordable (was looking at Sigma/Tamron 70-200mm f2.8 ) but £40 more for a DA* was a pretty irresistible deal!

They'd better drain all of ours then, I don't think the sheep usually bother trying to find a portaloo! Mind you, it would appear to have been a problem caused by having a reservoir for treated water open to the air...

I've actually found another use for my new MZ-7. I've hung it around my neck where its wide strap seems to stop the ache I woke up with.