Exactly my point!

Perhaps the solution is more than one make, horses for caurses so to speak. Just as one might have a Land Rover for trecking the foothills and a Lotus 7 for fun.

A Nikon with one fast long lens for wildlife, but keep all the Pentax gear for everything else. When i do go birding, even though I sometimes take several lenses, I almost never use more the the 100-300 f/4.

Sadly, I have to agree with you on pretty much all of this. I do not think it is only Nikon who take the mickey over prices. Much of the kit we buy is just so outrageously expensive compared to manufacturing costs. With lenses, I can see the justification and to some extent so too with the camera bodies, but other kit is OTT. Batteries are prime example, why is a K-7 battery over £60????

TBH, even if I won the lottery, I would need to scratch my head for quite a while before I could come up with a package that gave me all I want, let alone all i only need. It is enough to drive one to the demon drink!

I take your point about slow autofocus. I have experienced times with the Sigma 100-300 f/4 when it has hunted back and forth through the full focus range and failed to lock on to anything. I have too become interested in birding and would like to get photos of birds in flight. For birds at rest, either in trees or on the water, this is not too big a problem at the moment.

I have been looking, slightly enviously, at friends who own the Canon 7D or the 5D Mk2 and the results they get are stunning. But it all comes down to being too far gone down the Pentax road to turn back, without a lottery win.

Even so, I have heard from a Canon owner that the 7D has it's problems, so the grass is not always greener on the other side of the hill.

I sympathise about the long lens shortage, but had you considered the Sigma 300mm f/2.8 with the 2x teleconverter? Total cost about £2425 from WHE.

This would give you 900mm equivalent on the K-7 and retain autofocus. Same as the cost of ten hire events, then it is yours forever. Could use a credit card if cash was the problem, but that is just my view on things.

I could not afford to jump ship, even if I wanted to, which I do not, as I have too much gear. The overall cost would be unthinkable.

However, I wish you luck with your new camera kit, I am sure you will be pleased with it.

Repaired the focus mechanism, which was jammed and refurbished the Helicoid mechanism, which I assume is the iris.

Certainly cheaper than a new lens.

I have just had my Pentax 50mm FA f/1.7 autofocus lens repaired after dropping it in the snow last month. I sent it to Asahi Photo Ltd last Wednesday and they phoned me on Saturday to say it was repairable. I accepted the quote of £40 + VAT and it was returned to me this morning fully working.

Great service and vert polite and friendly staff, I can recommend them if you need servicing. They use only genuine Pentax parts.

I have the Pentax three tube extension set which has auto aperture linkages. I have used them succesfully with the FA 50mm f/1.7 and the Pentax 28mm f/2.8 lenses, using them in aperture priority mode. The camera previews at full aperture and shuts the lens down to take the photo. The depth of field can be checked in the normal way with the preview position of the on switch.

As the depth of field is very shallow at full aperture, it is not necessary to have a fast lens, in fact it is better to use f/8 or f/16 if the light allows.

Amatuer Photographer mag are running a series of articles in PSE8, you should be able to get the current and back copies from them. Well worth it if you are considering upgrading.

I have legacy Pentax lenses from my film days that would work perfectly well on a full frame camera body, but I also have a range of APS-c lenses that would not.

Most of my expensive lenses are in the latter category, so a full frame camera would involve me in considerable expense beyond just the body.

I would need to think long and hard about that before I were tempted to change. Probably so would a lot of other people in the same boat.

I am not sure that Pentax would sell enough to make it worthwhile unless it were a pro beater, but lots of Pros are going for mirrorless cameras of the micro 4/3rds variety so I understand. it is a big decision for a smaller company to make.

Surely one big advantage of full frame is the shallow depth of field possible with large apertures. APS-c does have a wider DofF for the same aperture setting.