I answered "C" as I think Pentax have a fair case for asking more (they can't spread their costs on anything like the scale that Samsung can and need to make more per unit to have any hope of covering their own initial investment), however, I think the gap is simply too wide - unless Samsung at selling at very near - or even below - cost just to get market recognition. They wouldn't be the first company to do this! If that is the case then I feel sorry for Pentax because they can't really compete with that sort of marketing and Samsung need to be careful they don't kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.

Ideally, I'd like to see future models from Pentax/Samsung to be completely different, that way you'd have greater choice for K mount users. Perhaps Samsung would make more consumer-oriented cameras with lots of user friendly gizmos and gadgets at low prices to tempt people in to the system and Pentax could concentrate on mid/high end products for serious amateur / pro use. The budget K mount lenses could be badged as Schneider and the Pentax name used exclusively on Limiteds / *'s. The current set up where you have two differently badged versions of essentially the same products competing against each other just seems plain daft to me...

I don't have XP any more but I'll add to Matt's thumbs-up for CD Burner XP - I used it a lot and found it a very useful and intuitive programme.

I think that's an excellent composition, reminds me of the sort of thing you'd get in a book illustration.

I don't actually own the Sigma but I'd be very suprised if it offered a noticeable improvement over the Tamron at its full 300mm or wide open. These are budget lenses so their performance at the extremes will never match their more expensive cousins, you just need to play around with them, find what the limitations are and then work within them. From what I see both lenses are capable of excellent results when not made to work too hard...

The Tamron 70-300 is pretty good for the money but it does have a couple of weaknesses; namely that it's pretty soft at 300mm and also at fully open apertures - by taking this at the full 300mm and f5.6 you're getting the worst of all worlds. I notice the EXIF data says you used ISO 100 as the sensitivity so here's my recommendation:

When you get to 300mm back it off a little (about 270 should do the trick) and close it down to f8. To compensate for the smaller aperture up the ISO to 200 and you should be able to use the same shutter speed.

I doubt the deer will be there to pose for you again but once you get to know this lens you'll find the above pretty much holds true in all situations. If you want a lens that's sharp wide open at that sort of length you need to be prepared to spend a lot more money...

I liked it how you had it in the first post, the slight leaning somehow adds to the overall "ramshackle" feeling which I think gives the picture its appeal, also I prefer the dark space on the left to the close-cropped one. I'd like to see a version somewhere between the two (crop wise) like Gwyn suggests above.

I prefer this to your photo on your other thread which is unusual for me as I normally get drawn to colour photos rather than black and white...

I hadn't noticed that before - now that I would be interested in!

I can (sort of) see the logic in stopping production of the 77 Limited as Pentax believes the 70 Limited is a direct replacement (many may disagree but I think that's Pentax's thinking), however, I'm suprised at the DA14 being put out to pasture - it's a relatively new lens and has no direct replacement, unless there's another new lens announcement in the wind..?

For such a cheap lens the Tamron never fails to impress with its competence - I especially like the nail shot.

Careful though, macro photography can become very addictive!

Nope - unusual filter size too, I was only aware of the Adaptall version which had a 49mm front end.