Do you actually need the camera to be tethered to the PC?

I also leave the camera out in the garden to shoot birds on the feeder sometimes and I just trail my wired remote (10m) through the window. I set the camera up manually first (exposure and focus) and if anything interesting happens while I'm doing the washing up I just press the button - simple and effective! You can quite easily modify the wired remotes to be any length you like by adding extra cable, so 20m shouldn't present any problem.

From everything I've seen this lens looks like a real stunner - enjoy!

I'm with the buy-a-heavy-tripod-for-macro brigade too, but I think some of your compositions are on the right lines. I especially like numbers 2, 3 and 4 above (1 and 5 are a little too "centred" - remind me of place mats). In fact I'd say the field daisy (#3) is pretty much perfect as it is in terms of composition, focus and depth of field - more like that please!

I have a cheap wired one from eBay too - works just fine and I use it a lot. The wireless one has the advantage of taking up less space in the camera bag but the wired one doesn't need batteries and can be used around corners (and over walls etc). Really comes down to personal choice...

You got some cracking shots there!

I was at the steam rally in Weston Turville (also with the compo in mind but no rusty wrecks to be seen) and saw some of the biplanes flying over en route. I should have come over to Halton by the look of it.

I especially like the way the (Tiger Moth?) in #2 looks like it's about to crash land and the formation in the last photo is fantastic against those clouds. Reckon you had the right lens with you!

If he notices your sig's changed he might just smell a rat...

You distract him, I'll nab the 31 and you can have the pick of what's left - sound like a plan?

Tell you what, we'll have a squint at the Herald on Wednesday and see if there's anything coming up that merits a little field trip - there's bound to be something on at this time of year surely? I'm still saving for my 31 so I might have to play with someone else's if one should turn up...?

I do like the robin, the overall rendition of the picture seems better than my Tamron 70-300 is capable of but it's difficult to tell without shooting both lenses back-to-back. Nice capture though, the focus on his eye is spot on!

You could still use them with the 2 second delay, the lens shuts down when the timer starts so it should give it plenty of time to reach the right aperture before firing the shutter. Not exactly a perfect solution but as long as you're not shooting action then it's better than nothing...