My photography bag is already too bulky for transport with the whole family and setting up another external flash would be too complicated in most family situations. If I could play just with photos I would definitely try it but now I am lucky for the 1/180 with the standard wireless. Thanks anyway!

Anvh: I am not 100% sure whether the AF360FGZ was in Master mode but it was on the hotshoe and ISO was automatic and no way to set the sync speed above 1/180. I'll check the Master issue tomorrow.

About the wireless flash trigerring - I find it very useful in white or brigt painted rooms (not too large, at most approx. 7x7x4 meters)with bright ceiling. Quite often I shoot at ISO 200 with the wireless AF360FGZ lying on a desk flashing toward the ceiling or a wall. Unexpectedly nice and sharp pictures, almost no ghosting. Only slightly red eyes but this can be removed.
Btw wireless doesn't seem to support high speed sync even when ISO is fixed (not auto ISO, then the high speed sync doesn't work anyway), am I wrong?

Thanks for your answers and tips, I'll keep trying between manual and AF centre spot for the more difficult shots (sport & flying birds).

Okay I will probably try the pre-focus and then burst shoot anyway because you never know. And it is very difficult to predict bird's movements - but I guess some experience will help here, too!

Manual selection is quite slow if taking action photos of kids and people. Then I try to focus manually or centre spot.
I still use MZ-5n too and there I used AF only exceptionally and if, then centre spot.

I also use the method of focusing and recomposing and I like it quite a lot.

I tried to use continuous focus and continuous shooting, it worked pretty well but I think in some bad pictures the problem was in the old Sigma 70-300 APO lens.

Question about autofocus with the K10d: which are you using? Automatic selection, manual selection or center spot? I use most of the time center spot because when using automatic focusing point selection it often focuses on something I don't want to be focused. I would therefore appreciate any feedback on which of the three modes (well probably mostly only two) are you using and you are happy with. Which for instance do you suggest for sport (skiing) and bird (flying) photography? Thanks, ohawa

Yes, sometimes I still take film pictures (on slides) and to me it still seems they have better dynamic range than digital. But only a few rolls a year. Digital makes me think in a slightly different way than film - and just the possibility of experimenting and seeing quickly the results, that's simply amazing! BTW I also want to keep some of the old film cameras (it's not worth selling them) for my kids, simply for later.

I've had similar problems with the same Sigma lens (APO 70-300, no DG), there was back or front focusing I believe. But when I do focus manually (which is what I was used to do most of the time on my MZ-5n) it is okay. Check the viewfinder if you haven't shifted the dioptric adjust, it happened to me a few times. Unable to do manual focus then. I'm glad to hear that the 55-300 is a good lens, I might buy it since the Sigma got suddenly oiled inside on the lens! But the dream is still 100-300/4 or eventually 70-200/2.8 with converter.

I've had 2.5'' 250GB WD Passpor Essential dropped (unplugged) from about 40cm on the table and things went wrong but I don't know to which extent: copying some music for a baby of a friend of mine, when listening to the burned CD afterwards I found out only mixed punk music located on another part of the drive, hehe. So for now only linking has changed... but I'll be buying another 2.5'' drive anyway, to make sure. You won't transport 3.5'' as often as the 2.5'' which makes it safer - just because of size and weight.