Konijnenberg in Den Ham http://www.fotokonijnenberg.nl/ or Kamera Express in Cappelle aan den IJssel http://www.kamera-express.nl/ ?

All this blending of still and video is why the EU now want to impose import tariffs on digital cameras at the same rate as video cameras.
Better buy my K10D soon before it goes up 15% thanks to the EU.

From what I've read of the new Sony there are some that already are available (or will be very soon):

The fiscal year in Japan ends March 31st, that's also why shareholders are informed about new opportunities, markets and products.

Sony Japan just announced some exciting news about their DSLR efforts on their homepage (see http://www.sony.net/Products/dslr/ for more details). Here's a small summary:

The flagship will be called definitively Alpha A1 (pronounced "Alpha One" and is available for September 2007. It will incorporate a newly developed APS-H (1.3 crop) sensor with 16 MP and other nice features that are completely new to the DSLR market:

- Shooting 10 pictures within 1/2 second while mirror up for choosing the right image from a series, no more "missed moments.
- Two CF slots for fast parallel writing.

- Regular 3, 5 and 10 FPS shooting modes, two BIONZ2 ASICs that process JPG and RAW in parallel, allowing 10 FPS RAW+JPG shootings until card(s) are full.

- Live preview with a small head-up display in the pentaprism for low-light shootings.
- In-body SSM for smooth and quiet autofocus even with older lenses

- WLAN and Bluetooth integrated (in the vertical grip), for GPS/mobile phone integration, remote control/storage, simple picture exchange etc.

- The image sensor has special parts that allows flash pictures without any pre-flash. Bye-bye lazy eye!

- RGB-metering with 1024 segments, with area-specific colour sensitivity to minimize channel clipping.

- 42 AF fields with intelligent segmentation, that allows shooting macro shots with 10 pictures at varying distance within 1/2 second (see above) and masking for high-DOF shots.

- Customizeable buttons and functions, Java-based user interface with open API for developers to allow creating personal tools.
- Of course SSS

- A lot of software that allows post-process most lens errors (vignetting, CA, distortions).

The price will be about 4999 US$ or 3999 EUR. There is an agreement that Nikon will incorporate this sensor in their D3x camera that will come for the same date.

The "high amateur" model will be called A10, having a newly developed 10 MP APS-C sensor with less noise. The selling date will be Christmas 2007. Some of the features of the A1 will also be incorporated, such as:

- Shooting 10 pictures within 1/2 second while mirror up for choosing the right image from a series, no more "missed moments.

- Regular 3 and 5 FPS shooting modes, one BIONZ2 ASIC allowing 5 FPS RAW+JPG shootings until card is full (fast cards) or the buffer is filled (1 GBytes double-port DDR-RAM, 75 frames)
- WLAN and Bluetooth integrated (in the vertical grip).

- RGB-metering with 256 segments, with area-specific colour sensitivity to minimize channel clipping.
- 29 AF fields with intelligent segmentation, as above.

- Customizeable buttons and functions, Java-based user interface with open API for developers to allow creating personal tools.
- Of course SSS, as always.
- The same software.


The price will be 2499 US$ or 1999 EUR. There is an agreement that Nikon will incorporate this sensor in the D300 camera coming at the same date.
The lenses are unveiled that were shown at the shows:

- Zeiss Vario-Tessar T* 2.8/24-70 standard zoom lens, full frame, 2000$
- Zeiss Vario-Distagon T* 2.8/16-40 wide angle zoom lens, full frame, 2500$
- Zeiss Planar T* 1.2/50 standard lens (G-class 50mm), 750$
- Sony 4/70-210 tele zoom lens (the beercan is back), 1000$
- Sony 2.8/400G SSM fast super tele lens, 10000$
- Sony 4/300G SSM tele lens, 1500$
- Sony 3.5-6.3/18-250 lens, 900$
- Sony 4.5-6.3/70-300 APO lens, 800$


These lenses will come in the next 12 months. Additionally, one new high-end flash light and the macro flash ring are released.

Additionally, the prices on the existing lenses will be reduced by 20%, since Sony wants to get some of Canon's market share, not the Nikon share (that is a partner concerning sensors). And because the prices are too high to take Canon's market share.

These are no rumours, but hard facts that can be read on today's announcement on the Sony corporate web page.
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I have the Bigma and love it. It is very good. I haven't tried it with a TC and you have to check it will work with yours as it doesn't work with all of them. I believe the Tamron one is Ok whereas the Sigma one, strangely enough gives problems.
The Bigma is tough to use handheld simply because of the weight of it, so you may have a struggle with it even with SR. But I see the 100-300 is only 300g lighter.

I also have a Tamron 28-300 which is also good, but I got the Bigma for the extra range it gives. It is not a walkabout lens though!

If you have a K100D I don't think it supports SDM/HSM anyway so you don't need to wait to see if Sigma eventually come out with one.

Pete, have you tried cropping off the bottom third of the second one, making it landscape instead of portrait? Th lines of rocks work better then imho.
And I agree with Liam on photo 5.

Iwonderd about the tax situation. Elsewhere on the site they say there are no extra charges for the customer, and they are London based. I can't find anything about them anywhere, though they are enthusiatic advertisers.
Think I'll hang on to my money and wait till I can buy one from a reputable dealer. Maybe I should put in a bid on SRS's auction on evil bay

Has anyone heard of Intervex.co.uk? They seem to have ridiucluously cheap things on thier site.

Like the K10D: http://intervex.co.uk/items.php?id=735272

They sound too good to be true.

PIE = photo imaging expo.

Do you mean the PIE? That only started today so it would have been tough for us non insiders to know about that yet. No mention of the 645D anywhere with regard to the PIE that I have seen.

Pentax does not come off well

http://pixinfo.com/en/articles/ccd-dust-removal/