There was a bit on the news along these lines today. Apparently Trading Standards are investigating a number of websites which although they have a .co.uk address are in fact based in places like China and are suppliers of counterfeit goods or worse.

Hi Ragnar - welcome.

I know a little rocket science, but I am still learning about my Pentax care of the good people around here.

Enjoy.

Hi Paul

I too have a 150-500 and I am quite pleased with it for the price.

A few images -










Bear in mind that the street price is about £750 against the 60-250 at £1100, and it starts to look quite reasonable especially when you need the extra range. I have the 60-250 as well, and although the 60-250 will knock spots off the sigma at 250mm, I'm not sure that a crop from the 60-250 would beat an uncropped image from the Sigma.

Another point - the focus is quite quick on the Sigma - it will give the DA*s a good run for their money.

One or two people around here have had less luck than they expected with them but ho hum. Try the DA* 16-50 wide open at 16 and fifty - not perfect.

A couple of downsides - you will need a good tripod/some weatabix - they are heavy (1.9Kg). I think someone also put one in a bag mounted on their camera and it pulled the lens mount out of the body. Solution - take it off the camera before putting them in the bag.

Summary of my rantings - for the price if you need 500mm and the flexibility of a zoom then they ain't bad (although the Bigma will produce a better image at about 1.5 x the price).

I have a general caveat that has served me well - If it looks too good to be true, then it probably is.

SRS may not be the cheapest on the planet (although they are very reasonable) but you get a reliable product and good advice and backup from them.

Other places knock out imports and gear from all sorts of dubious sources, and when you need the warranty, you may be disappointed.

That would probably date back to before the RAF came into existence, and military aircraft were operated by the Fleet Air Arm (or the Army Air Corps).

The unholy crossover between nautical and aeronautical continues. The aircraft one is flying may be referred to as the ownship, and it may be part of a four ship formation

Probably nothing more scientific than general opinion.

She was moved from Brunt for two reasons. Firstly the airfield does not really have the infrastructure (fire service etc.)for regular Vulcan ops. Secondly the airfield is to be used to store a large number of unsold vehicles, which would mean a lot of debris. If her engines were to ingest even a small stone for example, the results could be disastrous.

I am not sure they have decided where she will spend the winter.

TBH Richard our IT system at work is so awful that everything is slow. I'll do it again from home now - no real problems with speed here. If I do have a slow-down then I'll do it again.

She does not necessarily fly directly from one display location to another. They try to overfly sites that they feel she would be appreciated at. She is limited to visual flight rules so would be routed around any bad weather. There are various civil and military airlanes she would be restricted to/from - she doesn't want to collect some hotblood blasting around in a Tornado at 420kts. There are several considerations taken into account when deciding her route.


Gratuitous Vulcan video

Hi Polchraine

IIRC she had been at Fairford for RIAT the weekend before and would have been in transit up North for East Fortune/Windermere/Sunderland appearances.

With a bit of luck I get to see her three times in August