My experience of the 150-500mm is that you really do need a tripod to get the best results as it's just too big otherwise! Works very well on my Red Snapper ball head though.

Look at the Lowepro Rezo Toploader Zoom cases, they come in various sizes, are very well made, and not horribly expensive either.

Don't worry about that blocked site - I used to work in a school's IT tech support unit and our site blacklist frequently threw up completely innocent sites as being undesirable. The fact that the word "holster" is involved probably triggered the filter to block it as being related to weapons.

In my experience the usual "spiderweb" fungus doesn't eat SMC coatings, or at least it seems to be possible to clean it off without leaving any marks.

Fuji still offer instant film which is interchangeable with a particular Polaroid type (not 100% sure which), it works perfectly well in the Polaroid back for my Bronica but it's eyewateringly expensive at £12 a pack - you can get four rolls of Ilford HP5 for that!

If I knew which Polaroid film it was a replacement for (and which cameras used that film) I wouldn't mind a nice retro instant camera to put a pack through for a bit of fun.

I think I'd ask for their address anyway, as another aid to matching up payments with the PM confirming that they want to buy the item (and working out who to post it to).

The flame is apparently visiting Aberystwyth. I won't be, at least not on that day!

The BBC has evidently been briefed to drum up support for the whole olympic business, despite the fact that, as usual, it will overwhelmingly take place in London and provide very little economic benefit for the rest of the UK. If it was taking place in, say, Birmingham I might be slightly more supportive.

Check the trigger voltage on older non-Pentax flashguns, depending on the sophistication they can fry DSLR trigger circuits. Better quality flashes have an extra circuit so the full voltage of the capacitors isn't passed onto the hotshoe pins. I know I have an ancient Sunpak and Jessops-branded flash (both little AA-powered ones) with trigger voltages around 200V, meanwhile all the genuine Pentax ones are under 8v and seem safe!

All you need is a multimeter set to measure DC volts, just turn the flash on, let it charge, then touch the positive test probe to the centre pin of the hotshoe foot and the negative probe to the side contact to measure the trigger voltage.

That's astonishing!

Time to buy an LX or some interestingly rare Pentax glass?

I've been working full time looking after GCSE and A-level exams, boring but should pay for a new Tamron 70-200mm f2.8 with any luck...

Another thing to remember - go by final bids, not BIN prices.

It's worth remembering to mention that a flash/lens will work on Pentax DSLRs too. I recently picked up an AF201SA (very compact but surprisingly powerful program flash) for £5, the seller had priced it cheaply because they thought it didn't work on digital. In my experience all Pentax flashguns (at least from the AF160 onwards) are fine for use on a DSLR, the trigger voltages are safe and if you have a Program flash then it will work in P mode with your DSLR, as while Pentax dropped TTL they kept the older Program Flash protocol.

I've decided that I'll offer my unwanted kit here first, anything which doesn't sell will be traded in against the new lens. Expect a thread in the Classifieds in a couple of weeks, when I have some time off so will be able to get photos of the items and deal with posting anything which sells.