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In terms of IQ and sharpness at 300mm (which you will need) the 55-300 will leave the Sigma 18-300mm standing. Personally I would sell the Tamron and buy the DAL 55-300 which is going to cost you £40-50 net ! You can see for yourself then for a very small outlay, because you won't match the IQ and sharpness of the 55-300mm for under about £500-600 in my opinion at that focal length.
Dave

I started out with the Tamron. I then had the DAL 55-300mm which was streets ahead in IQ although was tricky but no worse for BIF.
Of course you can get this second hand for under £100 so worth looking out for. In fact I might put my mint one on classified soon as I use the DA*300 now.

I was getting a bit twitchy about some of the Pentax/Ricoh customer service after reading and knowing about a couple of things on here. I bought my daughter a Ricoh WG-30 rugged camera for her round the world trip and half way through it packed up due to the battery terminals becoming corroded. (Seems to be a common fault in this range). Naturally it had been used under water and in a variety of outdoor conditions but well looked after within that environment. So I was half expecting the blame to be put back on us. None of it. Returned to SRS who dealt with it in their usual excellent way (thanks Doug) and Ricoh have replaced it with a new one, no quibbles. Took a month or so but generally very pleased and has restored my confidence in them somewhat.
Dave

Most cameras are good these days. To the point where I think reviews are no more helpful really than a list of specs. As has been pointed out by most no one camera excels at everything. This really means you either choose one that is good at your main interest (It will almost certainly do everything else adequately) or you have more than one. Personally I tend to:-
1. Decide what I am buying it for
2. See what I can afford
3. Read the specs of those I can and see which best meets my requirements
4. Have a read on forums and around the net and ask questions to make sure I haven't made a bad overall assessment.
5. Buy it!

Dpreview full review out now. Usual Achilles heel for Pentax - AF accuracy and speed and video although I can't see why anyone would want a full frame video camera - after all high quality movies can be 16mm.
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/pentax-k-1

Well the K70 wasn't a rumour and appeared sooner than many might have expected so thanks for the heads up Karlo. Looking forward to seeing how people think it fits into the lineup.

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You must be getting through some spinach with that weight Alan

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Yes indeed. Never underestimate the deviousness of the people manipulating the Stockmarket

I guess though, that in the time since the DA 55-300 first came out the small drop in aperture has been more than compensated for by better high ISO performance?

Don't blame you - I had one of those , great Russian camera