For panoramas I use the camera in portrait mode, and allow about a 20% overlap. Before the first photo in the series I take a picture with my index finger in it, then take the series, and then take another with two fingers in it to indicate the end of the panorama series. Makes life much easier when you get home and start processing all those holiday photos.
I also set the camera to manual to keep the exposure the same throughout the series.
I don't have a panorama head so I am a bit limited in the size of panoramas I take, but they seem to come out OK in PSE6.

Off Topic

Thank you Mike-P. It was taken with the Ds.
I couldn't get anything like that with the K20D and that lens though. Not sure I could get anything like that with the K20D full stop.

Budget is important. A cheap tripod is a waste of money.

Heads - yes you need one. Some prefer a ball head, but they can be as dear as a tripod, others like a three way head. Some tripods come with a head, for others 9the better ones generally, you have to buy the head separately.

Try to find one which is tall enough that you can use it without needing to raise the central column too much if at all.
Consider the weight of your camera and any lenses you have or may buy - they affect how stable the tripod and head are.

Makes to look at are Manfrotto, Velbon, Slik, Redgen, Giottos. Some if not all Manfrottos maybe out of your price range, all Gitzos almost certainly will be.
See what SRS ( www.srsmicrosystems.co.uk) have available - you get free postage from them as a forum member - mention you are a member when you order, and they are wonderful people!

Maybe Pentax User members in the UK should club together and buy a couple to share .

I have an older (non Di) Tamron 28-300. My husband now uses it on his K-m as it is not good on the K20D. It is prone to some purple fringing, but otherwise is a good lens.

This was taken with it:

[IMG]http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c205/Bargwynbu/webzeb.jpg[/IMG]

However I think if I were to buy a lens now I would go for the Pentax 55-300 which seems to be a really good lens for the money.

Never had one. My husband had a couple with Windows 95 but that's a long time ago. We never had problems with Vista either. Windows 7 is extremely stable, and so far everything works with it, even things that didn't work with Vista.

BSOD?

I use Firefox with Windows 7. Absolutely no problems with it.

SD cards are fine when scanned at airports. Mine have been scanned plenty of times with no ill effects.

I should know more about all these frequencies, having worked at the Radio and Space Research station, but I don't .

On my K20D it pops up without power - I tried it last night before posting here.