Mike-P - After my trip to Donington yesterday I had another query about SR exif codes, and it seems appropriate to link across to that now link

Karel - I'm using a Mac, and getting the exif data readings from that.
But I've just run up my Windows virtual machine and installed ExifToolGUI, which gives a little more information. Very useful when you want to dig a little deeper.
Using ExifTool I am getting the SR codes of 7 & 135, instead of 5 & 129 reported in Preview on the Mac.
__7 represents SR on/not stabilised
135 represents SR on/stabilised

Gamka - while googling I have come across the following information about Pentax SR tags:
0 = Off
1 = On
4 = Off (4)
5 = On but Disabled
6 = On (Video)
7 = On (7)
15 = On (15)
39 = On (mode 2)
135 = On (135)
167 = On (mode 1)

Looking at some motor racing pictures I took at Donington yesterday, I have quite a high proportion when I had SR turned on but the image was not stabilised.
When I reverted to higher shutter speeds and no SR, images were sharper.

Lens in use was a 300MM, and I was panning on most of the shots and had continuous focus set, so had a shutter half press throughout the time I was panning - although exifdata is recording a nil shutter half press time when SR was not stabilised. The half press times are recorded when SR is stabilised.

I wonder if it is just my poor panning technique (which I know needs practice) that is causing so many shots not to have SR stabilised, or is there something else going on that I should be aware of?

That seems highly likely - which is why I'm trying to work out the meaning of these codes!

I've been experimenting with turning Shake Reduction on and off to try and see what effect it has.

Checking the exif data I see that different codes get displayed for SR when it is on. 129 or 5 are the codes I've seen so far (0 when it is turned off).

Do any of you have any idea what these codes indicate?

Do any of you have a Pentax D-BG4 battery grip in reasonable condition that you want to move on?

Have you checked that they are the same specification? Many third party batteries do not have the same capacity as the OEM battery, so that may be the reason. The specs will (or should be) written on the battery, so it's easy to check.

With any luck it'll just be a case of the initial production run(s) catering for the mass (canikon) market first, before moving on to the smaller, more refined market

WG3 already discussed earlier in this post, and to my mind a good option

DrOrloff - It wasn't a camera club, but the local Military Club!
As I said at the outset, he is a complete novice in terms of photography, so while he is displaying some interest in getting decent photographs I doubt he will get to the stage of processing RAW images before the trip (although it does no harm to shoot RAW+ and save them for future use).
I'll be looking to encourage him, if he wants more help, but I think it will firstly be a case of him learning the camera controls, exposure and so on.

A high end zoom compact would probably be ideal, but I don't think there are any built to withstand the rugged conditions they are likely to encounter. I would have thought the first criteria to fulfil are resistance to cold/water/dust etc. and to be generally quite rugged - after all, the camera will need to work reliably in that environment - then start looking for the best you can get in terms of image quality from what's available.

I agree - I was going to suggest looking for a second hand camera/lens(es), and as you say, plenty of spare batteries.
As they are not going until early next year, it would be good for him to get one now so that he has plenty of time to get thoroughly familiar with it.