Nice! From the low angle it looks like most or all shots were taken hand-held? If so, those are pretty remarkable results for a heavy lens in evening light. Good sharp subjects with smoothly rendered backgrounds. Impressive.

In case anyone is interested (and can't stretch to the 150-450 zoom) there is a fella selling a Pentax SMC DA* 300 mm f/4.0 SDM Lens and a DA HD AF rear converter 1.4x AW on ebay at present.

Here is the link.

With SRS's current low price for the 150-450 I'm hovering over the 'buy now' button and mulling over whether to go for the Pentax DA HD AF rear converter at the same time. It will certainly empty the money box but the feedback here from owners of the lens is so encouraging.

Jim

BTW, can anyone confirm whether the supplied HS120-270 soft case has a shoulder strap or fixings for one? Thanks.

@scarr1: I recently bought my partner a Dell laptop which may well suit your needs and is just a little above your budget:

Dell Inspiron 15 5558

BTW someone above mentioned PC Specialist, who built my excellent and powerful desktop pc. I looked at the bespoke laptops on their site before looking elsewhere but, frankly, they worked out quite a bit more money when compared like-for-like with the Dell. The 5558 provides a very good specification for the price, and image quality on screen is great. I dumped the installed Windows 8.1 for her in favour of a free Windows 10 upgrade. So far Win 10 seems a definite improvement on 8/8.1 but that's subjective.

My two-bob's worth.

Jim

Also now available from SRS MIcrosystems at the same £1,499 price, including the standard two-years Pentax Pro dealer UK warranty and, of course, SRS's impeccable after-sales service.

I'm struggling to get all the pennies out of my money-box quickly enough before they sell out

Jim

The English web site of Dutch photographic supplier PhotoSpecialist now has more stock of the Pentax D FA 150-450mm F4.5-5.6 ED DC AW lens for £1,557.99 inc VAT. This includes a two year warranty with the option to extend to four years for an extra fee.

Still an expensive lens, but this represents a saving of £200 off the current price of UK Pentax Pro Dealers so might just tip the balance for those wavering. I'm sorely tempted myself, particularly as PhotoSpecialist is a respected supplier with good warranty returns procedures if needed.

http://www.photospecialist.co.uk/pentax-d-fa-150-450mm-f4-5-5-6-ed-dc-aw

Jim

I travel quite a lot and for a couple of years now have settled on just the 50-135 and the 20-40 Ltd, both excellent lenses and both weather/dust resistant - I'm not sure that the 17-70 is. To travel really light it is hard to beat the Pentax 18-135 as a do-most-things lens. I have no experience of the 18-250 so can't comment on that.

Best of luck with trains in China

Have a great time!

Jim

PS: I was recently travelling with a pal who had a bridge camera and, although the smaller sensor compromises IQ to some extent, I was certainly impressed by what it could do and it had the other qualities that JohnX extols.

Issue now resolved thanks to much-appreciated help from David Burleson and his server admins It's great to be able to access the PentaxUser web site and forum from my mobile again - so convenient while on my frequent travels in the UK and abroad.

Many thanks for your response David. I have run the ssllabs test on my mobile and have emailed the results to you as requested. My mobile failed a number of the tests so it looks as though my version of Android (2.3.4) might be the issue but I will be very interested to hear what your server admin concludes.

Thanks for your help, which is much appreciated. Hopefully there might be a way that I can continue to access PentaxUser from my mobile.

Best regards
Jim

Before the web site change I regularly accessed the Pentax User site from my Samsung Android phone but I've not been able to do that since the change. No matter whether I use my bookmark, a google search link or any other way of accessing the site I get the message 'Data connectivity problem. A secure connection could not be established'. OK-ing that simply brings up a 'web page not available' message .

I have no trouble accessing the Pentax User site via Firefox on my pc but it has always been convenient to visit the site via my Android phone whilst out and about. I've looked through all my phone settings, cleared cookies, etc but nothing I do lets me connect to Pentax User. I'm not having difficulties connecting to any other web sites from the phone.

Has anyone else experienced (and overcome?) this issue? Any ideas as to why it's happening?

Thanks
Jim

The Pentax DA 70mm f2.4 Ltd lens is now SOLD to forum member Pelle51. Many thanks Per.

That is the last of the lenses and filters I have placed for sale in the PU Classifieds in the past few weeks. ALL SOLD to forum members. Many thanks to all who have shown an interest.

Still 100% Pentax loyal and no thoughts of jumping ship, as several seem to be doing recently. I see Ricoh taking great strides with Pentax, against all odds, and I'm optimistic that the Pentax name will regain the status it had when I bought my first Spotmatic more than 40 years ago.

If anyone is considering parting with their Pentax D-FA 100mm f2.8 WR macro or perhaps a Pentax-fit Sigma 105mm f2.8 EX DG macro HSM version please pm me. I should say that I will not buy from outside the UK (no doubt that contravenes some barmy Brussells ruling but I don't give a fig!).

Jim