Thanks Chris, I'd never heard of that before. Not sure it would do much in the middle of Dartmoor though.

Thanks for the links to the GPS unit. I'm still not sure what is does though. Does it tell me where I took a picture or where the stars are? Either way I think I might just stick with my hand held Garmin GPS - I don't have to go round in circles and disappear up ... I mean to another forum.

I know Christmas was a few weeks ago but I'm just catching up. I loved the Snowman drinking IrnBru - Visit Scotland - I did last year for six weeks and had a great time. I also got some lovely pictures, a couple of weeks before I got the Pentax

I assume I have to buy something expensive for the GPS. Does anyone have it and is it worth it?

Thanks Gwyn. This is the first update I've done as I wanted to make sure everything worked well on the 1.01 version it came with. I followed the instructions and it all went without a hitch. Algernon, I didn't check the checksums because I didn't think of doing so. Have you ever experienced any problems with the download or are you just being very careful and professional?

Lovely picture of Piper. Looks like the dog had a fun life. A friend of mine had to let her labrador go too recently. I really miss him as I used to dog sit for them, he was a rescue dog and scared of everything. He wouldn't go out if the wind was too loud in the trees. Never had any inclination to have one of my own though.

The K5 was my first DSLR. I spent about two months reading reviews, comparing every element of the specification with its rivals, making spreadsheets etc. The K5 was coming out on top and then I held one and fell in love with it.

Fatspider, I have joined a camera club. It was the pictures produced by photographers with an alphabet of letters after their names, and all aiming for the £4 million pic that got me wondering if I should just have stuck to the point and shoot. Fortunately, I have been pointed in the direction of some really inspiring stuff so I'll keep practising.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to make me see things from different perspectives and for the links to some great photography. I loved the reality of the Richard Billingham stuff and VonBonCat's angels are really artistic. Both Eve Arnold and David Burnett's work too showed me how well other people could use camera's to depict periods in time in a well crafted style. I think fatspider and LSJ should try psychology, you both seem to have a talent for reading between the lines.
Now I'll get back to downloading today's pictures to see if there's any sign of improvement yet.

I guess I shouldn't have added the poll since I've no idea how or where any results are to be found.

Devon Camera Centre in Exeter, ordered in a K5 with the 18-135mm lens for me to try on the basis of one phone call from someone they didn't know - I think they went the extra mile. While I was in trying the camera I was also really impressed with how much attention they also gave to students with very little money too spend.