I ran my *istDL2 on 1700mAh batteries for a couple of weeks before getting some 2600's for it. The 2600s certainly last better, but the 1700s hold their own and are still better than using Alkalines.

too busy taking photos to worry about it?

most of the above

I'm no pro, and the closest I have yet come to photojournalism is when my Dad's and my photos were considered for inclusion in the Cambridge uni magazine coverage of the varsity fencing match. One of Dads was used in the end.

Other than that, I do just about everything mentioned, just not particularly well

mine does this as well, I've always assumed it's the sensor moving on its mounting but don't know for sure.

my sympathies for your loss Tyr.

remember the happy times, hope the new toys help to take your mind off things.

here is what I do, if others have better suggestions then I'm open to them (like you I always want to describe my items fairly)

open up the aperture and closely inspect the lens elements from both ends of the lens, holding it up to some sort of light source will help you to determine if there is any fungus or other nastys in there. A little dust is normal on an old lens but I always make sure I mention it anyway.

close down the aperture and inspect the blades from both ends. Oil on the blades will be obvious if it is there. I also gently work the aperture stop down actuator to verify that the aperture blades move smoothly and without resistance.

It's always worth checking the focus ring works too, obvious I know but I was sold a macro lens a couple of months ago which was perfect in every way except that the focus ring sticks at 1:2 and 1:10, making it basically unusable.

the reason for this is that the K10D has a pretty big buffer. Large enough in fact that Pentax figure it will never be filled by JPEGs as long as the card used is a reasonable one (I once took a 60 frame burst to test this with my 60x no name card and concluded that if it's not infinite then it's as close to as makes no difference).

Until that buffer is full, the performance of the card doesn't come in to play.

For this reason if I'm taking both my DSLRs to shoot fast action, I put my fastest cards in the *ist DL2. It's small buffer means it sees more benefit from them than K10D does.

I agree in terms of cameras, but he's looking at using it for Vista's clever bits, perhaps there is a benefit to having more storage from that point of view?

nice shot, I would argue a little heavy on the USM in places, there are black halos around some of the leafs.

I would probably have applied the USM to a duplicate layer, that way you can use a mask and/or the layer opacity to vary the effect until it looks just right.

thank goodness the temptation has been removed!