I would be interested in the comparison between the two at 14/15mm. 14mm is a bit of a sweet spot on the sigma I feel.

From lenstip and photozone's review, the 8-16mm does look rather excellent in the middle of it's range. At 12mm the centre quality is described as sensational, with the edges described as very good- at max aperture. Whether it's worth the upgrade is another matter! The 10-20 is just fine.

I can't see how it could possibly be any sharper! Looks a cracking lens and the pictures are truly excellent!

I do, because I can confirm my 7dayshop batts last for days of use - easily long enough to remember to charge the original battery and the other spare. This to me is reasonable and ensures I always have a spare battery to hand plus a further one for backup if i'm away for a week and don't want to take the charger. If the price difference was less i'd probably go for the Pentax battery but the difference is tenfold! I don't see the point of the Hahnel or innov8 as they perform similarly to the 7dayshop ones but cost closer to the original Pentax ones.

I think if you clicked on the link John, you'd find the results table is the same as the one you are talking about, and the breakdown is by the same contributor, based on actual measured rather than quoted capacities. I don't particularly care if the 7dayshop batts are less than the advertised capacity as long as they are a reasonable capacity, which they are, and there is very little difference with my original battery in practice.

Did you see this chart posted on dpreview forums? http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a304/uzielgal/Batterycapacity2.jpg

Hahnel comes out best of the off brands, but the price/performance breakdown is interesting:



The 7day shop battery has nearly the same capacity as the Hahnel at less than a quarter of the price, so my advice is buy two of those ones.

I have two alongside my original battery, and to be honest, I can never tell which one is in the camera.

Yes the way the statistics have been processed creates a false impression. I doubt anyone would have put the 100mm macro in first place, but it looks like most people had it high up in their top 5. I think everyone put a wide or normal zoom in first place, but there are so many options available.

It's a good yardstick of lens popularity though.

Cool Don but seriously... no music? Hard to appreciate the clip without it! I'm sure a quick burst of their music wouldn't be objectionable, indeed it's the way new bands get known these days

If you want you can upload the clip with a setting so only people with the link can see it, which would be ideal if you don't want to put the clip in a publicly accessible way, but want to share with your friends the awesomeness of the band (and your video editing chops)

Good comment about the 100mm being a bit long for a portrait lens. The Sigma 70mm might work, and would be a good compromise as well as having amazing IQ (as most macro lenses have). I've got the Tamron 90mm which is great, it works for candid portraits but I tend to prefer my DA35 or A50mm for more intimate close up portraits and full body shots. 35mm is often said to exaggerate people's features a bit too much but I don't mind the effect. And even with a 90mm lens i'm too clumsy to photograph nervous insects so the 35mm macro appeals as a lens which can take into flower buds and down among clumps of toadstools etc.

The Ks, Ms and As will still be soldiering on though, at least if we can prevent Canon users buying them up.

Microsoft ICE. That dawn shot is fabulous, and I love Doors too. Looks a very worthwhile destination!