Lucky you! Looking forward to some great photos! As Peter says, if you can afford it, buy the Bigma - you can always sell it if you really don't like it. You'll probably not lose much on it either.

Congrats David, make mine a cider
I hadn't noticed I'd gone through the 1500 mark

It's a pity you are so far away- I'd lend you mine otherwise.

Off to Kenya? Can't remember if you said where you are going, sorry.

You know what Tel, I don't care if I do get the bill tomorrow. I have had a rough time lately with one thing and another and this is my (not so) little treat to myself to make up for it all. And it won't put on the kilos like chocolate would

Well now, the pound is at a record low against the Euro, VAT is as low as it will get, I still haven't had a bill for the heating, but I have paid off my credit card bill

So.....

I just ordered a DA*50-135 from SRS
Even with the extra postage involved I am saving at least €150

Oh, but don't tell the Bill Payer - this is our little secret

I'm not aware of anywhere that hires out Pentax fit lenses I'm afraid. I looked into it a while ago both in NL and the UK for me and a friend with no luck.

Sounds like that Mars lander that was a joint European/US project where they messed up - one was working in metric the other in imperial - result one hard landing!
Not as life threatening as a plane being under fueled, but a very expensive mistake!

I use Photoshop elements to convert my RAW photos, to crop, to occasionally adjust levels (less and less with the K20D) and for black and white conversion. I will occasionally use the dodge and burn tool, frequently use the clone tool (again less and less with the K20D) for dust and the odd annoying element in a photo.
Sometimes I'll play more with a photo just to see what I can do with it, but I can't take a duff photo and make it into a good one - if it was duff in the first place it will at best be acceptable after a play with it.
I don't have a problem with people manipulating their photos, whether it be in Photoshop or in the Dark Room. If it was good enough for Ansel Adams it's good enough for me.

I was thinking about him the other week when I was printing out one of my photos - he has (or had) it hanging in his house - and it occurred to me that I'd not heard for a while. Then my heating collapsed, and my brain froze and I forgot to do anything about it.
I hope we hear from him soon. Hopefully he is just off enjoying a well earned retirement.

Nothing to stop you editing the exif to remove such details. I always add the GPS data to my photos, when I remember to take the logger that is .
But I don't post on Flickr or anything like that, only on my own site so I guess it doesn't worry me. There are very few places on this earth which are known only to one photographer in any case.