I have used mine on my Ds, so only from the front, from about 10m away to get a big group, with no problems.

Lovely photos. I really like the first one, and look forward to more!

Here in the Netherlands they organise special outings in the Veluwe National park for photographing the wild red deer rutting- you go with a warden who knows where they are likely to be. Trouble is there are so many people snapping away it is no fun any more. Plus you get a touch of lens envy as every one produces their massive white tooters. I haven't been but a friend went, but said never again. He was of the opinion that most went just to show off their gear anyway.

I think I'd have spent the extra and bought a remote contol F, especially as it works from behind the camera as well as in front on a K10D.
Anyway I hope it is just the battery that is the problem for you.

Sigma have said all along that there is not enough demand for Pentax HSM lenses to make it worth while them making it. So unless Pentax bring out more HSM cameras I think you will have a long wait for an HSM Bigma.

Srsmocrosystems also sell Canon. Watford isn't too far from London - maybe worth the trip?

Benjamin did promise us some surprises in the autumn, so tomorrow looks hopeful - I assume they will make the announcement on day one of the Salon. If it is only the rebadged, recoated Tamron it will be a big disappointment.

Edit: or even today as it is the first day Lost track of time there! Well no news today...get that fish ready.

I find it strange that there are no details of this lens on the website. Very mysterious, but tempting as a travel lens.

An alternative is to have a gallery on the forum. I have one on my forum - but that is a very small forum so I can get away with it, but again it's a question of bandwidth. Personally I have no problem with hotlinking. I share photos with F&F through Photobucket too. If you have your own website you can hotlink from that usually.

Hi, you need to upload your images to a host site such as www.photobucket.com (there are plenty of others around but be sure they allow hot linking.)
Then copy the URL for the photo. Click on the Img tag above paste your URL and click on the Img tag again (in Photobucket clicking on the bottom option will give you the comlete URL with message board tags so you just paste it.).
You should end up with something that looks like this :

Check it has worked by clicking on Preview below.
Good Luck!

It depends on many things - how much do you want to pay being perhaps the most important - a good ball head often costs more than the tripod it sits on, and frequently more than the camera it supports.
Consider how heavy the gear is it will need to support - this will affect what you buy too. And the weight of it - the ball head plus camera/lens mustn't be more than the maximum your tripod can carry.
What sort of quick release, if any, do you want? The "standard" is the Arca-Swiss style. Manfrotto have several different types, none of which is an Arca Swiss type.
If you decide on an Arca Siss type QR then you need to look at Really right Stuff, Markins (Nikonians are the importers for Markins), or even Benro, but there are others.
Have a look at http://www.shortcourses.com/guide/guide4-3.html for the pros and cons of these systems.
I have a Markins Q3 which I am very happy with. I got it for a good price ut normally they are expensive.