I have just downloaded a trial of Photomatix Pro to have ago with HDR. I have followed the tutorial which seems straight forward enough, but the results are all wrong, with the bright bits blown out and the dark bits black. Can anyone give me a clue?

I thought the Tamron was 1:1 as well.

If you can better the results you are getting from the Tamron I can't wait to see them. I don't think you will see a great difference, but you never know.

I have one living somewhere in my fireplace at the moment. Of course it's a harmless english one, but it's about the size of my thumb and my cat's frightened of it

By the way, Clarky, about the Sigma 10-20. If you are at all interested in landscapes I would really think about getting one. 30 years ago I aspired to a Pentax SMC 15mm f3.5 but could never, never have afforded one. Even lenses by Tamron or Sigma were out of my reach. I spend a lot of time in Wales with lots of big scenes to look at and a 28mm was the best I could afford. Imagine my disapointment when I "went digital" to find my best wide angle wasn't wide angle any more!
My father left me a pair of Leitz Trinovid binoculars 20 years ago, which I seldom used, and when I saw what they were fetching on eBay I searched my soul and decided to sell them. That's how I got the money for my 10-20 and I LOVE it. I hope Dad Knows how happy I am with what I have done!

Is that a venemous one?

There should be a very high tide on Thusday or Friday 'cos of the alignment of sun and moon early on Thursday morning ( about 1.30am I think). There will be a Lunar eclipse so an alert to you all if you are interested. Totallity is not until about 3.30am when the moon could well look a sort of redish colour if conditions are right. I've got the Tamron 500mm mirror primed and ready to go

The HDR effect is quite subtle, which I prefer. Some HDR look too "forced", but this is natural.

I love No.1. How did you avoid the sun getting blown out?

Like George said, the Pentax lenses are divided into subsections which I really can't be bothered with. I might be looking for info on a lens which I don't know the exact mount subtype and it just takes to long. I'm not that keen to toil through that illogical or lazy system.

Just tried Photodo. Didn't like it.