Perhaps your currency is doing better against the Yen than ours is?

Better still.

I think they have Stefan, but some outlets might still have a new one.

www.mifsuds.co.uk still have it listed. Don't know if they have stock.

This one is £399 incl. shipping from Hong Kong.

I don't have a D-FA 100mm macro lens but I think you have the wrong hood. I have an AF160FC ringflash which includes a dedicated adapter for the D-FA macro lenses, and it's bayonet fit, not screw.

Big shoulder pad or not MArtin, I find shoulder bags too painful after only a short time of carrying it. I should add that I have osteoarthritis in my spine so that doesn't help either.

For max carrying capacity I use my Tamrax Expedition 7x, supremely comfortable and it handles a tripod too. Although there's no room left for water, sandwiches, bottle of wine, beer, brandy, etc. OK, forget the water.

Telezooms are well known to deliver their worst IQ at their long end and at wider apertures. If you restrict your purchase to only the range you use, the lens will probably conform to the norm, IE: at the long end, you might be disapponted by the results. You might even have difficulty sourcing a lens with your specifications.

Buying a telezoom with longer reach than you need helps to minimize this issue. My recommendation would still be the SMCP-DA 18-250mm as a good walkabout lens or, have two lenses covering the range you require.

SMC Pentax 18-250mm seems to fit the bill.

Nice bag. I have the Lowepro Stealth Reporter 500AW and whilst it is a very good bag, I don't like having all that weight on only one shoulder. I've stopped using my Lowepro Slingshot 200AW for the same reason.

I now use a Lowepro Fastback 350 and its a very comfortable backpack style bag. My only criticism of it is that it doesn't cater for a tripod/monopod.

You're welcome and well done for sorting it out. It's not annoying at all. I've spent my working life in the IT service industry and finding solutions to problems is what I do.

It makes a nice change to have a relatively simple problem to sort out.

Enjoy your setup.

PS: You can use your AF360FGZ with a higher synch speed than 1/180 sec. You need to set the flash and the body (if yours will do HS Synch, consult your manual) to High Speed Synch mode. In this mode the flash will trigger a number of times for one exposure, but at reduced power. I'm not sure it'll work with your Cactus trigger though but it does work with the camera/ flash sset in wireless mode. This should work reliably up to about 4 metres from camera to flash but it also depends on the ambient lighting conditions.

So if you take the lens cap off, does the remote flash setup still work, or does the flash not fire?