Hmm, I think they possibly meant to put £70. Either that or there's a digital Hasselblad outfit on their site for about £50 because they got the prices mixed up!

It's a nifty little lens and worth having, but didn't come out too well against the M 100mm and M 120mm in a test on another forum. Mine isn't as good as my K 120mm f2.8, although you'll struggle to find one of them (genuinely rare by the look of it - I've never seen another for sale).

I'm not entirely sure what they're selling either - the photo is of the M 135mm which is a K mount but they describe it as an M42 lens. There was an SMC Takumar 135mm f3.5 but it's a very different lens.

I've had a play with one on a few occasions (Dad bought one for his K7 a couple of months ago) and it seems a very decent lens. I'm still not sure whether Pentax SR or Sigma OS are better and it does seem to struggle to lock focus at 500mm on the K7 and my K-m, although that could be because I try to use it on fairly low-contrast subjects which aren't in direct sunlight.

I always suspect that lens reviewers should actually take three or four at random to make sure their findings aren't from a one-off rogue lens which slipped through quality control.

I don't think expensive watches and I are a good mix. Which is why I'm currently wearing a £10 Amazon special (labelled as "Terrain Boardrider" or similar - it's analog and has a webbing strap rather than the metal ones which tend to pinch me, all I need!)

Unless you actually need the money, why sell any of them?

The DA 35mm f2.4 is absolutely brilliant as a compact standard lens, while the 17-70mm is more flexible but larger. So that's one for when you stuff a camera in your pocket before going into town and one for when you're actively going out to take photos.

I paid £60 last year for a WD "Essentials" 1Tb drive from Tesco, which seemed to be about the going rate. I wouldn't be keen to have one as my main "working" hard drive as I still suspect the smaller capacity drives to be more reliable for long-term use, but given all I do with this thing is plug it into the PC occasionally to dump the contents of the camera memory card I think it'll be ok.

I keep meaning to track down a cheap MK1 Xbox to fiddle with. You can persuade them to run Linux with a bit of poking about, they make surprisingly good media PCs for photo/video/web browsing.

I've heard good things about Peak Imaging too, and will probably be using them when I can afford to try a couple of rolls of colour 120 film.

Whichever lab Boots use for slide film isn't bad. A bit slow but the results are decent, and given film, processing and postage come in at under £10 you can't really go wrong.

I could post a photo of what my RS tripod can handle without flexing, but given the heaviest camera I own is a Bronica ETRSi (add 2x teleconverter, speed grip, AE prism and 200mm f4.5 and it's a heavy beast) I doubt it'd be allowed to be shown here!

It was perfect with a Sigma 150-500mm and the K-m though, which is pretty hefty.

The RS centre column and legs do not rotate, and the collar the centre column passes through is relatively deep, which would help avoid flex.

The tiny Slik Mini Pro on the other hand was just about able to handle the MX and SMC Pentax 85-210mm f4.5 without falling over. Not bad with a lens weighing the best part of a kilo unbalancing it (this lens doesn't have a tripod mount and is not recommended with plastic cameras!)

Interestingly the QR plate you have on the 250-600mm would fit my ballhead.

Wasn't too bad yesterday, bit of haze but I was able to go out and finish a roll of Ilford SFX (needs good strong sunlight to make the infra-red effect kick in). Possibly a bit too much sunlight or my old KM's metering wasn't up to it, as most of the results look a bit overexposed!

Surely you mean extended centre columns? I've used three tripods with them (not extended) now and they all seemed very stable. The RS even has a little retractable hook on the bottom of the centre column to hang some ballast from.

Meanwhile we've had the definitive first day of spring. Near-cloudless skies and warm enough to go outside in a T shirt.