I haven't used a tele-converter, but most of the shots on the link were cropped and enlarged. The quality of the 18-250mm is more than enough to let you do this. This shot of a kingfisher might help.

This is the original, though I have reduced the quality to upload it as my broadband is very slow at present.

[IMG]http://i393.photobucket.com/albums/pp15/chriseast/kingfisher.jpg[/IMG]

This is a crop of the same picture.

[IMG]http://i393.photobucket.com/albums/pp15/chriseast/bird1.jpg[/IMG]

It's not perfect by any means and obviously not what the DA 300 will do, but then you want a travel lens. The DA 300 won't do wide angle and everything in between.

I also took a FA 50mm 1.7, but didn't use it. The 18-250mm was enough in most cases.

As an aside, I've been to the Caribbean on cruises a few times so might be able to give some helpful pointers about the islands you are visiting. Rather than clog up the forums with off-topic conversation you can pm me if you like.

I use AV mode almost exclusively except where circumstances demand different. I set the ISO range to 200-500 and this copes with 90% of situations still leaving a decent shutter speed. The K-r will give decent results on higher ISO's, but in most situations they aren't needed.

I can't comment on the other lenses as I haven't tried them, but I like the 18-250mm a lot. I have the Pentax version, but I believe it is optically the same. Like all big zooms it has some minor failings optically, but for a walkabout lens I doubt it can be beaten.

It depends a lot on the focal length you shoot with most. Looking through the 1000 or so pictures I took in Asia recently about 70% of them are 55mm or under so the 55-300mm wouldn't work for me.

I have posted some pictures taken with the 18-250mm here:

https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/topic/photos-from-asia-32473

I like these, too. I love street photography, but still get hung up asking permission or rush the candid ones....... 4 & 6 for me. I rarely shoot in B&W, but might try a few more seeing these. What lens are you using for these?

Over the last 5 weeks or so the prices on Ebay have been nearer £350 than £250 - just supply and demand I guess.

I love my Pentax 18-250mm, but have to admit I'm tempted to sell it with the current Ebay prices. It wasn't too long ago that you could pick one up for around £220 - not sure where this extra £100 has come from all of a sudden?

Thanks. Actually most of the portraits are centred as a result of cropping before putting them on here. I posted a photo to a competition the other day and one of the comments was that it needed to be cropped to get rid of the unnecessary clutter....

As a result I've cropped the portraits quite tightly and they have all ended up in the centre! I'll have another look at them.

I was, and still am, impressed by the 18-250mm, but have little else to compare it to, except for the 50mm which I haven't used much. I need to have a search through the 1000 or so photos I took, see what range I used the most, then come back here for suggestions.

Thanks for the kind and helpful comments everyone. I should have mentioned that these are all jpeg - I don't shoot in raw. If anyone can see where shooting in raw might have helped with any of the shots I'd be interested.

As for the colours I have the K-r set to 'reversal film' in the custom image settings. This setting does seem to give very nice colours - I think it's supposed to replicate slide film. I can't comment on that having used slide film just a few times too long ago to remember, but of the custome image settings it's the best for me.

You are absolutely right. My main problem is that I tend to rush the shots, either because I take it quickly in case the subject sees me and objects or because, even with permission given I tend to try to get it over with as fast as possible as I feel I am imposing. Sounds daft perhaps, but it's something I need to learn to overcome.

I spent ages reading about the best way to take photos for a given situation and even took some notes with me. In the end it all goes out the window when faced with the opportunity......comes with experience I guess.

Certainly the 50mm would have been the better choice for some of the portraits, but it's a toss up. Whilst the photos I did manage to get would have been better, I'm certain that I would have missed many of them without the zoom capabilities or if I had stopped to swap lenses.

Helpful comments, thanks and I'll learn for next time.

Hi Alan

Thanks for that. It's funny how we all see things differently as I don't really rate the dancer one. I did everything wrong including the -0.7 stop error and really just included it to show the capabilities of the K-r in low light even with an idiot operating it!

It's actually three girls. Difficult to tell with the shaved heads, but they are in Buddhist nun clothing, not monk, which is the only way I can tell either. 500 kids in that orphanage with nothing of their own run on a budget of around US$30000 a year, yet they were some of the happiest people we have ever seen. Come back to Britain where most people have more than people in Myanmar could ever dream of and who are, on the whole, as miserable as sin. Makes you think.

It was the only place we have ever been where the children had never been photographed before and were fascinated by seeing themselves. We were as much as a novelty to them as they were to us.