Actually you're not so far off with that. I'm thinking I might move the 80-400mm onwards as I've found I can be much closer to the sort of wildlife that I like to photograph.

A 400mm or longer is not as essential or useful to me as I thought it would be.

It's easy to get over-involved in figures and graphs of performance when what counts is what the images look like. The images from the 18-135mm look pretty good at any size that we would normally print (up to A3) - it's up to the 18-250mm and the other kit lenses at least and, stopped down, they are all very good lenses.

And when they do they'll be using the same Sigma lenses as the marque ones are way too expensive?

Using long lenses in poor light is just not on really - we need high shutter speeds to avoid camera shake and clear atmospheric conditions to avoid haze. The longer the lens, the worse it gets.

Huge tripods and rock steady technique becomes critical, so it's just practice, practice, practice...in any event for much wildlife photography it isn't essential to have very long lenses, we just need to be in the right place.

I know some people who shott kingfishers, not with a long lens, nothing would be long enough, but with 100mm Macro lenses. If you know where to be and how to blend in then the subjects are within range.

Is the DOF preview lever (stop down lever) jammed in its operational position?

The best one is this one:

http://www.srsmicrosystems.co.uk/403/Pentax-SMCP-M-49mm-Square-Lens-Hood.html

Fast, convenient and good for the new 35mm f2.4 as well. However, not a nice price, so maybe eBay and second hand is a thought. Cheap copies are nowhere near as well made.

Pentax items only.....

I'm curious as to what settings you have used - the colours of the bins seem very over-intense and there's something unreal overall about the colour balance.

As for focus, could camera shake have some contribution here? None of these are really sharp, but we might expect the 35mm to be sharper if the shutter speed was quite low.

Why not check out the advice on the Foreign Office website and on the Egyptian Embassy website?

It's a terrible subject for AF, badly lit and heavily backlit. Also, the centre focus point is on a blank area with little contrast or detail.

Try moving the table so that the light actually falls on the subject and you'll find it focuses just fine!

It's on ePHOTOzine as well and fully accessible there.