Mmm, on the whole I take Ricehigh's posting with a pinch of salt, but this does look genuine. No gauarntee of that of course. There again there is no reason why Pentax wouldn't release it earlier in Japan and Hong Kong than the rest of the world.

Yes I meant to add that. Thanks!

If you are prepared to buy it over the internet then try B&H photo in New York. They tend to be the cheapest anyway. If you don't like it you can always return it. Just don't try an order on a Friday evening/Saturday - they are Jewish and observe the Sabbath, and other Jewish holidays.
Ritz also have a good online service.

Cruise ships also have pretty strict security Stefan, as does the Eurostar from London for instance. Since a cruise ship reacts much slower than an aircraft it would be very difficult to actually cause casualties in the manner you refer to.

None of the extra security has put people off travelling by air. Only the current credit crunch is apparently doing that - though both my flights to and from Portland were packed to the gills, in business and down the back where I was.

My K20d didn't start at zero either when I got it. Don't worry about it - assume it was the QA dept at work

I take my tripod (a Velbon CF630, plus Markins ballhead). It straps onto my backpack. Another 2 Kgs doesn't make much difference when you're lugging a Bigma around .
My backpack (a Tamron) is incredibly comfortable once it's on my back.

Same could of course be said for Pentax/Samsung.

It has not been OK to take a tripod on board a plane since 9-11. Quite apart from using the thing as a cosh you could have stuffed the legs with explosives. All checked bags go through explosive detectors so they are allowed as checked bags.

If you treat the security guys with respect they do the same to you. It is a crappy job with a lot of hassle from the passengers, and it is no wonder they occasionally get bolshy back. They have mostly had a humour by-pass it's true, but you can probably only here a joke so many times.

You may have been over sensitive to his handling of your bag simply because it had your camera stuff in it. If it had had your paperback for the flight in it you wouldn't have been so bothered. It probably wasn't obvious to him that it had a camera in it.

I have experienced security at Schiphol, (very civilised - at the gate before boarding), Heathrow (complete chaos), in Tanzania, and at several US airports. Never had a problem anywhere. Take the laptop out if I need to, take my shoes off if I need to, accept it and get through asap. Even US Immigration people seemed to have been to charm school nowadays after the complaints about them in the past.

Storms can happen, maintenance gets missed, pilots are human, planes crash. Fact of life. I'd just rather not go into the great dark night to allow some religious nutcase to get his quota of virgins. If queuing, security questions, filling endless forms for pre-checking, and a bit of hassle are what it involves I'll accept it. No-one makes you fly after all.

When I flew out of Boston a couple of years ago the poor woman in front of me set of the alarms as she went through the metal detector. They ran the hand detector over her - the wire in her bra had set of the alarm and she was carted off to have it checked. How mortifying!

Sorry but it is a well known fact that tripods are not allowed as hand luggage. I always check mine, in my suitcase.

You can buy special locks for the USA which are TSA approved. We use those. This trip our luggage was opened (probably due to the tripod :wink and they left a note inside to say they had done so. They X ray all the bags and inspect some of them on a spot basis or if something suspicious shows up on the x-ray. my case also had some battery chargers in it so I can understand them taking a look.

If you have a good camera bag/backpack it will take quite a bit of abuse from security at airports.

I'd rather put up with the hassles of modern day airline travel that been blown up half way across the Atlantic thank you.