But the monthly competition in your example started on 1st March Horst, so why not put in an entry earlier in March? At the beginning of the month go to the top menu bar of the site Gallery>Competitions and check out what the subject for the month is. Then you will have the rest of the month to sort out your entry. You don't have to wait for the newsletter to enter.

I hope that helps, but I remain puzzled as to why it's a problem.

I can understand your concerns about safety. London can seem daunting. Why not travel with a friend, then you can be supportive of each other?

Hi Horst

No plot I'm afraid, but I guess management don't read every thread, nor do they claim to. You can put in a report about the issue, but I'm still not personally sure why it's a problem. We all know when months start and end, so planning an entry to the monthly or weekly competitions shouldn't be an issue should it?

I haven't put in a report about it because I'm not clear yet what you're asking should be done, nor am I clear why you say it's a month out.

As regards you being a "bad boy", whatever it was is long forgotten, I've no idea now what it was, so it's better to just let it go and forget it. Once dealt with it's done.

The last time Sue and I were in London we used taxis around the centre. Not too expensive for short journeys and plenty of them around.

It's a lovely camera, so if it's otherwise in great condition I'd be very tempted to have it fixed.

The only real problem might be a lack of spares. The shutter is a well respected design and I doubt that it's a weaknesss as such, hopefully just needs a clean and recalibration.

I think you are having a knee-jerk reaction there Stuart, over nothing.

However, if you want your account removing it can be done and I can organise that for you.

Why not sleep on it first?

I would buy with confidence from SRS. They have new stock so I would not expect any problems.

You can't really go wrong with a subject like that, super shot!

You don't need to resize, the forum software will do it for you, but uploading large files can take a long time.

I use the old EPZ spec for most internet files, so 1000 pixels on the longest side, 72ppi, sRGB and a file size around 400K. That's quick and efficient and looks fine.

Pentax 560mm. At £3000 it's an absolute steal IMHO.

However, I might prefer the Pentax 150-450mm with the 1.4x AW converter. This will cost less, be much more versatile and promises to be a really good combination. At the long end 450 x 1.4 = 630mm. You also get AW construction.

PS The 500mm f/4.5 Sigma in itself does have very nice optical qualities.