I've used it at one race meeting so far with mixed results, but I put that down to me, not the lens.

I'm thinking I might need the low light focus abilities of the K5 II or K5 IIs.

I haven't been able to use it much in proper daylight yet but I'll let you know when I have had a decent play with it.

I'll put a few of the images I' have taken with it onto Flickr tonight with a link later.

I doubt that it'd be much bigger or heavier than a 70-200mm 1:2.8 lens, especially as it'd only need to satisfy an APS-C image circle.

The Sigma 70-200mm I have is just about manageable hand held, but not for long periods, and it's projects a full frame image circle too, perfect for that FF DSLR that we hope Pentax will make for us.

Actually, I think I read somewhere that Pentax has a 70-200mm 1:2.8 lens on the drawing board.

There are plenty of free Podcasts in the iTunes library for Lightroom.

If Pentax were to include a DA*35-70 1:2.8 in their lens lineup and remake the DA*60-250mm as a 1:2.8 instead of 1:4, the 16-50, 35-70, and 60-250 would satisfy 95% or more of my photographic needs.

A 35-70mm would plug that 10mm gap between the 16-50 and 60-250mm and have some crossover between both. My 50-135mm would then be redundant.

As that's not likely to happen, I'm considering the fast Sigma EX lenses instead and have already bought the 70-200mm and 150-500mm , though the latter is not in the EX range, neither is it very fast. I'm looking at the Sigma 24-70mm EX DG OS HSM now for the shorter focal lengths, which might be more readily available than the Pentax FA 24-90mm and of some interest to the OP.

If it's the shutter button on the grip that's not working as you would expect, but the one on the camera still works correctly, I'd suspect a faulty grip. Check it's electrical connector for damaged/bent pin(s).

P'd My Self Laughing. Should really be PML because myself is one would, not two.

The stills are great, the video . . . hate it.

In Spain, we don't really do Christmas. Instead, the main celebration is Epiphany (Jan 6th), known to ex-pats as three kings day. In spanish it's known as Día de los Reyes Magos. Literally translated it means "Day of the magician kings". Since there were allegedly three of them, it became Three Kings Day.

When I first came to live here, the shops didn't display Christmas related items until a week before. Commercialism has taken hold though and shop displays change much earlier now, but still not as early as in UK.

Anyway, where's the fun in removing what little entertainment can be derived from Christmas by expecting some kind of gift, and knowing what it will be beforehand?

You might find this useful in making your choice.

I joined the Topaz Labs forum to register my 'complaint' that EXIF data was being lost when images processed in their PhotoFXlab software was saved back to Lightroom.

I've had a reply which should help other frustrated Topaz users.

This workaround worked for me.