How true womble.

I must dust off my MF camera, if I can find why it won't move on the roll of film. Not a Pentax I'm afraid, its a Bronica....(shock horror )

I did have AVG on my old laptop but this one has the free PC guard from Virgin which works very well (I'm in IT support and won't have anything that is problematic)
Well I say free, I still pay for it as part of my Virgin subscription.......
My PC did once have bloatware (aka Norton) but even that now has PC Guard too.

AVG does have a tendency to run an EXE that hogs all the processing for at least 30 mins rendering your computer useless until it calms down. Only by adding a further 1GB of RAM did the old lappy start performing again.

As for OS, I am still an XP user, and a happy one at that. But the time will come to upgrade to Win7 at some point, hopefully not that soon.

witchcraft Cayman.........LOL

I noticed it too.

One bit I did notice as well was that the reviewer was still trying to compare with a FF DSLR from CaNikon, And that you can get a D3x with a few lenses for the same price (yawn!)

To the reviewer on AP. IT IS A DIFFERENT BEAST TO A FF DSLR!!!!!!!!

They won't listen though.

I have heard from reliable sources though, that Damien (the Editor of AP) really rates the 645D. I just wish he wrote the article.

Sorry to be a party pooper, but unless you find a place that actually has the mighty Sigma 100-300 F4, you will have no chance. I know, I have tried.... Sigma UK don't even have any in stock, and its no longer listed on the web site.
Yes, the Jacobs web site does show it on a K mount, but having enquired, nothing, nil, nada...

Positive side is that both the Sigmas 120-400 and 150-500 are getting good reviews, even if they are not a constant aperture.

Hope this helps.

Now before I get any stick about the number of lenses I have etc etc etc.(from my "other" thread)
I have got the DA-35mm F2.4. I ordered it to look at 3 weeks ago, and in reality I was hooked when I did a test of it.

What can I say about it from my first use at lunch today (on my K10D)
Well, it is very light, the "plastic" mount seems solid, it looks like a 77mm (albeit in plastic) but the bokeh! aaah the bokeh! It is so creamy. On my test yesterday it was the one thing that really sold me the lens.
Sure the bokeh is not quite as creamy as the Limiteds but it is not far off.
It is, in all honesty, a great walkabout lens, and it won't break the bank nor break your back having it in your backpack.
From now on, I shall call it the "Plastic Fantastic" due to its build and mount.

Example is here


[/url] 2 gingerbread hearts - £7 by Offertonhatter, on Flickr]link

Does anyone know of a place which will scan Kodachrome slides? (preferbly in Manchester)

I only ask as my only two rolls have come back and I am struggling to get decent digital versions from the scans I have done.

I was going to rant about Jessops, but I could'nt be bothered.
They were great once, but no more. Now they try and sell Canon or Sony gear to anyone and everyone. (this is not a rant, I could write a lot about Jessops)
However, they are STILL a big presence on the high street (in spite of everything) and people who have no idea about photography will go there first. So, any sort of Pentax presence will be a bonus in spite of everything.

Interesting thing with their web site though. DSLR's are mentioned, but not lenses (and I mean the non-bundled stuff)

On another aspect. Curry's in Manchester DO have a couple of togs who sell gear. As an example, a chinese girl was in the shop the other week looking at a DSLR at the same time I was there, looking at the K-7 and D90. She wanted to know which was better. Being a Pentaxian I could not resist, and in the discussion with myself, the currys guy (who is a Canon user) and the girl, I advised that the K-7 was better than the D90 in so many ways, yet advised the very small number of D90 advantages.
In the end whe was impressed with the K-7 and I think ended up buying it.
consequence to the chat the Currys guy said "thank you" for my help and it was a genuine thanks rather than a sarcastic remark.

LBA can be expensive, however if you are happy with Manual lenses, there are literally millions out there, and at reasonable prices.
However, beware, people are catching on this, and prices are rising.
Still, looking at the second hand places (be it the press, shops, or auction sites) you can find some great lenses at a fraction of the price for a new equiv lens.

Having handled a Nikon 135mm F2 D lens (and what a beautiful piece of kit it is too) I would LOVE Pentax to come out with a DA*135mm F2 too. It would be a lot bigger than my little 135mm F2.5 Takumar, but I can imagine it being a stunner.

However this is going off topic, to which I am sorry....

RAW+JPG for me.

Although I process 99% of my shots from the K10D and K20D from the RAW file, I appreciate having a JPG there too for reference so I know what shot is what (I don't have Lightroom - got put off with LR 1.1, but I hear LR3 is so much better.)

Occasionally there may be a jpg (the other 1%) that the camera has processed that I like and will use that instead.

Plus from time to time like the recent Romiley Horse show, they only wanted JPG's there and then so RAW files would be useless.

Yes, it fills up cards and hard drives, but memory is cheap these days.