*coughs loudly* FRONT FOCUSING. Honestly, if they're going to give awards on the basis of a device's theoretical capability (rather than what it actually does in practice) then the DA* 16-50 should be winning reliability awards

The EOS 1000D is (remarkably) still going, and most places still have 450Ds in stock too (although I'm not sure if the latter is still officially 'in production' or if there are just containerloads of unsold stock)

If nothing else, you should grab that Mount Adapter K (if it's the official Pentax one) because the official price is now £64.99 ($105.20 Canadian) here in the UK and (although probably not as bad) has presumably had a price hike in Canada too.

What I don't understand is, with the National Trust being a charity and therefore (as someone pointed out) no different from Eton College, what gives them any more right to restrict photography in a public place (ie photography OF their property, but not taken ON their property e.g. from a nearby public road) than any other private entity? Or is this restriction we're discussing only for photographs taken on their property?

The information is 'no longer available' on eBay - probably because the auction was too long ago.

And doesn't have the dodgy focus motor

Cheaper than the DA* 300 by (ironically enough) about £300

Another of their "going out of stock" Pentax deals I guess - these are listed for £169.99 (and 'on backorder') at Warehouse Express and not even available any more from SRS. Anyone who has a K10D or K20D should check this out - with the K7 using a different grip these could become quite difficult to get hold of new.

http://www.parkcameras.com/6153/Pentax-Battery-Grip-D-BG2--BG-2---K10D--K20D-.html

Decided to get one of these to celebrate getting over my temporary brand-wavering (), and for the shutter release button in portrait mode.

I really loved the harlequin. I wasn't in the market for a body and they weren't released over here so I couldn't get one

I'm not talking about recently, I mean the early-2009 price hikes (since that article compares late-2009 to late-2008 ). As a few examples for overseas members, here are some of those 'adjustments' in the UK:

*FA 50mm f1.4 £175 -> £450
*DA 12-24mm f4 £415 (I think) -> £940

Of course the advantage we have is that we can buy Sigma and Tamron lenses, at the same price as Canikon/Sony users. We, however, get IS (unlike the former) and palatable high-ISO performance (unlike the latter). Still no help with non-macro primes of course.

From this Amateur Photographer article:
Doubling (and in one case tripling) your lens prices in the middle of a recession can't help either.