If the lens looks like it is in good condition then I think it is probably a bargain regardless on whether you can get anything back on the camera. Check that it comes with its hood, PH-RBC 58mm, which has the removable panel for using a polariser.

The 28-105 is still available new, in black or silver, but is listed at around £230. I did find it new here for £150 but that is still twice as much as your find:

http://www.abc-digital-cameras.co.uk/shop/product.php?xProd=415&xSec=112

Glyn

30th post and it makes me a forum veteran, yes!

Thanks but I'm a hoarder, particularly with lenses, so I'll hang onto it.

Before I bought mine I read a review in the March issue of What Digital Camera. The Sigma came 3rd behind the Canon 10-22 & Nikon 12-24. There were comments about CA and a lack of sharpness but value for money it came joint 2nd with the Canon, behind the Nikon which was over double its price.

I have found it takes some getting used to. I had an anticipation that it would be fantastic for really wide landscapes but in practise it increases the depth of the foreground and landscapes then only work if there is something in the immediate foreground. However if you need to take pictures of big things that you can't get far away from, like city street shots of buildings, then its brilliant.

I think its just one of those lenses that you have to have in your collection. It had been on my want list for ages. However you have to be really sure that its the correct lens for a particular shoot. A few times I've just gone out with only that lens and wished I was also carrying something a bit longer. For example this picture here was an early morning shot of the Frank Whittle memorial in Farnborough. Its huge, on a roundabout but not only did I not get all the roundabout in the memorial looks really small. I took the shot from the pavement at the roundabout:
http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w20/GlynM/10-20%20Wide%20shots/IMGP1342.jpg

Here is the same subject taken from the same distance, although in a different place, with a longer lens around a year earlier:
http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w20/GlynM/10-20%20Wide%20shots/IMGP3079.jpg

So I think you have to understand its limitations as well as its advantages. The reviews tend to push its advantages and it can sound like the cure-all solution for almost anything. I guess my initial disappointment was that I didn't appreciate its limitations and I think the best way to find these out is to use it. Hopefully this will put you a few jumps ahead of me when you get your own.


Glyn

Not many suppliers seem to list whether they actually have stock. You have to ring around or take a risk.

I recently got a Sigma 10-20 from Warehouse express. I had to wait a week but I thought that at the £289.99 price they were quoting it was worth the wait.

Looking around at the places I have used before I found it listed as in stock at Camera King but this is probably due to their rather high price of £324.94 but if you are desperate its there:
http://www.cameraking.co.uk/

It might also be worth ringing Bristol cameras. They have it listed at £295 but no indication on whether they have any stock:
http://www.bristolcameras.co.uk/page20.htm

I was a bit disappointed with mine. I found it suffered a bit from purple fringing particularly in landscapes with bare trees against a bright sky. A paticulary bad example is here:
http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w20/GlynM/10-20%20Wide%20shots/IMGP1010.jpg

The focus ring moves only a few degrees between 1 meter and infinity and I wonder if this is creating a focus inaccuracy that is making some of my short-distance landscapes look a bit soft.

While it gives a wonderful wide angle for inside shots I found I could not use the pop-up flash without the lens creating a shadow so had to resort to using a shoe mounted flash gun.

Its great though for taking pictures of buildings. By standing at a corner I made the mansion house where I work look more like a little gate house:
http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w20/GlynM/10-20%20Wide%20shots/IMGP1003.jpg

Glyn

I have the Sigma 135 - 400, also the non-DG version, which I originally acquired for my DS. I bought it when it was in an 'end-of-line' offer with a view to take pictures of the moon, tripod mounted, and for which it really is not long enougth. However with anti-shake I have found that I can use it hand held on the K10D and for me its given it a 2nd life.

Here is a picture of a robin, taken in my garden yesterday, with this lens hand held:

http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w20/GlynM/Garden%20Birds/IMGP0781.jpg

Glyn

Reading the question I did not know which eye I used. So I got the camera out and found that I use my left eye.

I also found that I close my right but having read the comments here I tried keeping it open. However most of what I see out of that eye is a blurred image of my thumb on the back wheel

Glyn

I had mine go down unexpectedly on a very cold day.

On the Thursday before Christmas, and only a day after my K10 had arrived, I spent a very cold hour waiting for a steam train to arrive at Guildford station. It was completely stupid as it was foggy and you could only see a few yards.

As happens with these sort of events the arrival times are a bit uncertain and you get very little warning so I had the K10 out and ready all the time. It was very cold and there was bits of ice falling off of the footbridge.

As you do, while I was waiting, I took a few shots of other trains, the signals and a few signs. When the steam train did arrive I had the camera set to continuous but it gave up and shut down after the third shot and only the 44th image taken by the K10. I turned it back on again and the battery indicator was empty. I put the camera under my coat for while and the battery indicator recovered to showing a complete bar. When I got home I put the battery on charge but it only took around 10 minutes to charge. So my assumption was that it went down because of the prolonged exposure to the cold.

I've not had a repeat of this problem but it has not been as cold. However next time I'll try and keep it warmer.

Glyn

I have a similar dilemma. My K10 supersedes a DS and a K100 both of which I still have. I loved my DS and had kept it as a backup to the K100 which definately felt it was aiming at a lower point in the market.

I only really need one backup body but which one, or rather which function, do I give up. The pentaprism or the AS?

I don't think I want to sell either. My other half is quite happy with her point & click F20 Fuji. I'm contemplating hanging on to both the DS and the K100 with a view of passing one to one of my many nieces and nephews if one should should show an interest. My youngest daughter did A level photography a few years ago but, disappointingly, has gone down the Canon route.

This may all change when we finally see the expected high prices for the new Pentax lenses. Having got the K10 obtaining at least one lens with a high-speed focusing motor is definitely a must-have and I might need a 2nd mortgage or have to sell all sorts of things.

Glyn

Cameras2U also list AAA batteries as an accessory under the Gx10, very confusing!

If you have an interest in the Gx10 then the manual is available as a download on the Samsung UK site here:

http://www.samsungcamera.co.uk/product/pro_view.asp?prol_uid=1925&cat_uid=62

It makes interesting reading. Not only have some of the buttons on the back gone square but they seem to have reworked all the menus. It appears to have most of the same functionality as the K10 but, for example, the menu for setting the range for the auto ISO has been shifted around 90 degrees.

I think there was an interesting statement in there somewhere that said you could use all the Pentax accessories with the Samsung. However while it does seem to have the socket for the grip I could not find the battery selection menu entry in the manual.

I have to admit I was tempted but the K10 was available first and I already have 2 of the 18-55 kit lenses. I also worried about getting the same level of firmware upgrade support that we seem to get from Pentax. Its not clear to me if the earlier Samsungs have had the equivalent of the recent updates to the DS & DL range.

Glyn

Seems to be close to the going price for the Samsung which does not appear to be available body only. I have seen it for £589.99, with the 18-55 kit lens, at Cameras2u:

http://www.cameras2u.com/products/details.cfm?PRODUCT=SAMGX101855

If you already have the 18-55 lens then I think the Pentax K10 body, at around £599, is a better choice.

Glyn

I Just tried a 2G card in my K100D and under Windows Xp it reports the card capacity as 1.89Gbyte, 2,032,271,360 bytes. A 1G card gave a card size as 968Mbytes, 1,015,414,784. However I believe that Windows is notorious at getting file sizes wrong although you do loose some of the capacity as an overhead of the formating. I have also used both of these cards in a DS without problems althougth I don't tend to fill them all up. I usualy chicken out and clear them before they get full.

I have had no troubles with SD cards on either of my Pentax cameras but did have a Canon S1 IS that refused to recognise a Kingston SD card that worked fine every where else. After that I have always only bought SanDisk cards.

My gut feeling is that you have a duff SD card.

Glyn