with my K10D I never use a tripod unless I'm doing set up shots.


I find SR and good technique renders a tripod largely unnecessary, which is good because I've always hated them.

There does come a point where the need for depth of field means you have no option but to use a tripod, but TBH in the real world if you're using exposures that long you'll be lucky to get a shot without motion blur anyway.

specs look really good, shame it's windoze only

can't say I have George, in fact I've never heared of that one before. Any good?

GIMP is worth a try, it's free so what have you got to loose?

for my money it packs more punch than any editor costing less than £100, I see no good reason not to have it unless you actually shell out for CS3.

And for something as simple as re-sizing I'm pretty sure MS-Paint would do the trick, it comes with Windows 3.1 and later.

K100D vs ist D is a really tough call IMO. I think you made the right choice, given that the K10 was financially out of the question.

The DA18-55 is much maligned (though not usually here) for being a kit lens but is surprisingly competent as cheap standard zooms go. Since you are obviously now rather short of cash, I would be inclined to get that.

it can be had here

http://www.srsmicrosystems.co.uk/index3.asp?id=65&section=%3Cfont+size%3D4%3...

for £69.

the 135 slot in my bag is filled by a 135 Takumar Bayonet F2.5. I know, I know, it's not SMC coated but my example is actually quite a good performer as long as you keep it away from excuses to flare.

I don't have the 135 F3.5, but my 50-200 is better than my 200mm F4 and a match for my Tamron 90mm Macro, it's also a lot more compact. You do loose a stop of speed at 200 though, which is why I still have my trusty SMC-M 200mm F4.

with a Pentax? oh now come on, with a Nikon I could imagine, but surely not with a Pentax? or do you have the battery grip?

you will have the same problem with any TC which passes through the digital contact (I think it's the 7th one but haven't got an A series lens here to compare), because the camera will just read the focal length from the main lens and not notice the TC.

If you use an old A series TC then the camera wont be able to read the focal length and you will need to set it manually. This is the only reliable way to use a TC with SR at the moment.

I have speculated that if you covered the 7th contact on a modern TC with insulating tape then it might have the same effect, but I don't have a TC to try it with and I disclaim all responsibility for what might happen if you actually try this.

I don't think I'd recommend this, but

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1036&message=19738793

sounds dodgy to me, could wind up with all sorts of trouble. There is a link in that thread to a proper adaptor, but since the difference in flange-to-film distance isn't great enough to allow space for a proper adaptor, it's an optical one. This will act as a short tele-extender and degrade optical quality somewhat.