Here's a selection, ending with the one I like best:

I buy almost all my stuff from SRS. If you want reassurance this forum is littered with support for their exemplary service.

No idea, you'll have to phone SRS and ask them. If it were me though, I'd be hotfooting it to the phone to order. Strike while the iron is hot!

Neither.

http://www.srsmicrosystems.co.uk/7753/Pentax-K-30-Black-Digital-SLR-with-18-55mm...

SRS offer free shipping to forum members, you get a free battery and can still claim the cashback.

I'm puzzled by the comment that Bridge displays low quality previews. They look fine to me, but you do have to wait for them to be displayed in full definitiion. Initially they will look rough until they all load properly.

The process in CS5, for example, is not that arduous. You open the image and a RAW file will open in ACR, within Photoshop. We open PS and Bridge (you can tell PS to open Bridge automatically, you don't have to do it separately) and they remain open throughout.

The RAW file can be adjusted and then saved as a JPEG or TIFF, after which it's all dealt with in PS. Bridge is only a browser like any other browser and is used just like looking for any other file in Windows.

Frankly as I usually shoot JPEG, there's no messing about at all. I just open an image, using Bridge to select which one I want.

Illustrator doesn't as far as I know.

What is useful is that sometimes people will send me images that open in obscure parts of Photoshop that I never use. Then a JPEG can be saved and away we go.

Lightroom was probably brought out to select the most used photographic tools and couple it with a catalogue mechanism to persuade us to buy it. And if that's what is wanted it seems a pretty good idea to me.

Not really, otherwise why huge series of books "Photoshop xxx for Photographers" but it doesn't matter much in that as long as you find what suits carry on. If we have a system that works for us we're unlikely to waste time continually lokking for another one.

There are images to process, rather than software to test.

I've just shot a sequence of shots inside the working dishwasher, using the W90, with flash and the sequence timer. 20 shots, 10 seconds apart after an initial 1 minute delay.

The dishwasher has a 12 minute cold rinse cycle, so that's ideal for experimentation.

The camera is now drying, so I'll wait for morning to take the card out, so then I'll post a result, good or bad, and we can perhaps see how the experiment develops as it goes along.

I tried a previous version of Lightroom but could see no advantage over using Photoshop. I believe some use the cataloging facility, but as I don't need that it seemed superfluous.

Currently we use Photoshop CS5, which is a very powerful program that far exceeds our needs.

We use Photoshop and have no reason to use Lightroom, but each to his, or her, own.

We use Photoshop to do everything, from RAW conversion (where applicable) to preparing for print or web. The only thing we do in another program is HDR, for which we use Photomatix.