Someone paid £102.99 for them What an idiot If someone else had bid £103 he/she would have lost them for a Penny! [/quote]---------------------------
Not if their bid was placed first. The £103 bid would not be a big enough increment to beat it. Also people often feel they have just lost an item by the amount they were outbid by but there is nothing to say there wasn't a maximum bid much higher than this already placed - this is how you can end up in a bidding war.

I'm still trying to achieved a result to match the above photo using a Sigma 150-500.

You should easily surpass this image with a Sigma 150-500mm. The edges look sharp but there is very little resolution in the feathers and other detail, which looks may be due to noise reduction after sharpening?
Dave

You can always pop round and borrow my Jessops ones Neil.

Agree with Dodge. I think my K-r 150-500 out performs the 55-300 with cropping for sure. A more interesting comparison (and twice the price at least)is the DA*300mm and Kenko 1.5x or Pentax 1.7x. From my limited experience the 150-500 will still edge it but of course at 300mm alone the DA* will knock spots off the other two.
Dave

Mine does! Lots of previous threads on this if you search.

I hate to tell you mine cost £43 on Ebay back in November 2009. Had to check back because I couldn't believe what they are going for now.
Maybe it was because mine wasn't advertised as the SHQ on it but does autofocus as some seem to as long as they have the 7 contacts.
Dave

If you are looking for cheap and good the Tamron 70-300 probably just edges the Sigma especially with the quite good macro and often under £100.

Ah, this one has firewire and hispeed USB and mini usb:-
http://www.ebuyer.com/221433-startech-2-5-usb-firewire-sata-external-hard-drive-...

Ebuyer do loads. Haven't waded through to find one with firewire but certainly USB 3.0
e.g , £20
http://www.ebuyer.com/318927-dynamode-2-5-usb3-0-sata-usb3-hd2-5s-b

You won't regret it. I did have to send mine back as the autofocus wasn't snapping in but was repaired and is great now with my K-r. I've been tending to use the in body SR for no particularly reason and it works ok. Will have a run with the lens OS for a while and see what it's like.
Dave
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dcweather/