As far as I know no one hires out Pentax gear. It's been asked before here, but I've never seen anyone come up with a place. Sorry.

It was intended as a joke Tel. I should have put a smiley by it.

Anyway as I said Patrick you can make a new MSN account without any problems to get you into the forum.

I don't use that forum. Not set up by a certain person banned from here was it?
You can always set up a new MSN account if you really want to join it, but it seems a strange way of doing things to me. Unless it is not a forum but a message board like you get on Yahoo too.

The Kit lens with the K-m comes without a hood, so maybe he never had a hood to use in the first place?

Well I am glad to hear you and your camera survived the fall!

I bought my husband a K-m recently and to be honest I am actually jealous. It is such a nice size and takes fantastic photos. So much easier to carry around than the K20D. I do in all honesty sometimes regret getting the K20D - it is just to big for me. But the K-7 doesn't sound much smaller in reality, and I don't have the money for one any way.

We nearly made it into Idaho on our trip to the North west this spring, but in the end there was just so much to see and do in OR and WA that we never made it. Another time maybe.

Weren't me guv'ner, besides I'm a Pentax Woman

We still use a Vosonics image tank, as well as the laptop if we take it.
Lately though I've just be using the SD cards, putting the write protect on them when fullish and using another one. I got through 4 weeks in the US with 6 4Gb cards. I backed one up to the image tank when things were getting tight towards the end, but I needn't have bothered as it turned out.
We've never put the laptop in a hotel safe - really never seen the need to. And some hotels now charge for use of the safe.
Never put the camera in one either come to that.

Maybe it is the ex-wife's car

Have you reset the white balance to auto?