There have been countless discussions on here about whether the Sigma 70-300 or the Tamron 70-300 is better and it always boils down to there being no appreciable difference between the two. Just buy the one that's (a) cheapest and (b) in stock.

I've got the Tamron tucked up in a drawer as an occassional lens (just for when I go to watch motor racing really) and I find it quite acceptable as an outdoor lens. It's a bit soft wide open and at its full 300mm but then so is the Sigma - these are budget lenses so you get what you pay for...

K10D - for all the reasons everybody else has put forward. For the money being asked right now it's an absolute steal, but don't forget they're now out of production so new stock won't be around forever!

Excellent judging Gary and congratulations to Belinda, a great glowing embers shot!

K10D / D-FA100 / f8 / 1second / ISO100

Two flashes will give you greater creative flexibility than one, so if you're going to be shooting in controlled situations then I'd say a pair of 360's. If you're just going to be using the flash on camera then I'd reckon the 540's swivel head gives it the advantage. Personally I'd rather have the two 360's but that's down to my style of shooting - others may (and will!) disagree.

I had wondered why you had 3 entries this week...

It should operate anywhere between 180-300mm; if you look on the zoom ring you'll see a similar yellowy-gold band indicating the range you can use the macro function in.

If you're talking about setting the aperture on the camera (with a DSLR or one of the later film cameras) then try this; set it to f4 while it's at 70mm then zoom to 300mm and half press the shutter button - you should see that the aperture has automatically changed to f5.6.

If you're talking about setting the aperture on the lens barrel (with an older film camera) then take note that there are two white indicators (one long, one short) above the printed aperture values - the long one corresponds to the effective aperture you've selected at 70mm and the short one to the effective aperture at 300mm. If you set f4 against the long one you'll notice that the short one corresponds to f5.6, etc.

Can't tell you what happens internally when you flick the macro switch to be honest, but I'd imagine it just allows the front elements to be moved even further forward by unlocking some sort of cam - pure speculation though!

Welcome to the forum.

I don't but my Dad does; he doesn't own a computer but he does have a digicam and an Epson printer that takes memory cards. By setting the DPOF checks against the pictures he wants to print, he can just put the memory card in the printer, stick the paper in and press "go" without having to set anything else up.

Perhaps it's just a home-printing feature but I must admit I was under the impression that any high street printer could read DPOF tags too...

Nicely done - and without a tripod too!

As for the aesthetics though, I have to say that I like the sky but I find the foreground a little uninspiring. Still, I think overall an excellent effort.