My money would be on the Tamron. I've had both a Tamron 500mm (from new) and a Tokina 350mm (from ebay) in the past and sold them both due to lack of use.

Excellent moody pic. I would like to see it with a corrected perspective. The trees gradually lean more towards the outside edge and is correctable in Photoshop. I doubt they lean in real life.

Nero has been through many versions. Which do you have? If it's 6 or later, it'll work fine. Also, most DVD/CD writers are shipped with Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) versions of the relevant software to enable their use.

[quote="Kal 10 d"]what game have i got myself into ?[quote]
Answer: A potentially expensive one

I downloaded your photo to check some of the EXIF data and noticed that your camera still has firmware version 1.0. You can download the latest firmware (V 1.3) for the K10D here.

Use fully charged batteries, and follow the simple instructions.

Did you notice the rear of another deer, on the far side of the fence to the right of the tree ?

You haven't said whether you used a tripod.

Check out http://www.srsmicrosystems.co.uk/index3.asp?id=622&section=Pentax+K10D&s... for an indication of new prices with 2 year warranty.

I'd say you got a reasonable deal, as long as it is as good as the sellers description.

I haven't looked at the roadmap recently but now I've noticed the '645' lens has been dropped.

Why, why, why, are Pentax discontinuing one of their best ever lenses, the 77mm Limited ? ? ?

I took some pics of the last one, late last year. During the eclipse, the available light is very very low and the biggest problem is the fact that the moon itself is moving . . . faster than you'd think. My results were very disappointing (c**p in fact), good luck if you plan to be around in the early hours of the morning to see it.

Well, I used flash for my pic. It might even have been an AF140C but I can't remember now.

Nice pics Dan. This is possibly (definitely) way off topic now but the type shown in my pic has an unusually shaped opisthosoma (abdomen) and is abundant here in southern spain.

Trouble is, their web is at about 30 - 45 degrees from the verticle and they always seem to favour sitting head down on the underside of the web making it very difficult (and possibly dangerous) to get a good head shot.

To get low enough to get a shot of the eyes, the only background you see is sky, not ideal, hence the black backdrop. I just couldn't get the backdrop out of the sun on this one which is why it's not black.