It`s hard to believe but my K7 is fast approaching a year old now so i would be surprised if something new was not in the air!
(Though nothing short of FF would tempt me to upgrade.)

Regards - Pete

Hi,
Pro Cycle Racing is extremely difficult to predict from a photographers point of view. A steep hillclimb would be the easiest to photograph as the riders would be doing 10-15mph. Otherwise corners can be a good bet, Either with a long lens or on the inside of a corner with a wide-Angle. Riders approach a corner on the opposite side of the road then try to almost clip the apex before drifting to the outside of the road.On Flat-ish stages that suite sprinters corners are often good places for crashes near the end of the race. Panning from the side on straight sections can work well for small breakaway groups but if there are a lot of riders in a peloton then it can be disorientating panning back and forth to catch the next shot (It makes me quite dizzy!). Then you have all of the Camera bikes surrounding the breakaway riders and any star riders too. Team support cars can be a pain too especially if they are allowed in between the riders (Usually when there is a big enough gap between breakaway groups) There are almost certain to be Breakaways, Either serious attempts to win or more usually to get the sponsors colours on TV. Some towns on the route will have Primes which are places for sprints so that the riders can earn more points and prize money.
Feeding stations can be interesting as riders slow down to collect their musette, Then throw away or swap the contents! Sometimes a good place for crashes too! (as are badly marked traffic islands.)
If you have two or more camera`s then you can fit a telephoto to one and a wide angle to the other.
Best of luck!

Regards - Pete

Hi John, I don`t think 5p is far off the mark, You would be surprised at how very little things cost to manufacture, As you say, Most of the price we pay is down to set up costs and distribution, Plus of course everyone down the line must take a cut of the profit along with Taxes and import duty. Naturally these things will never sell in bulk so that is another reason for costs being so high. I did try to find the identical Nikon Sensor Cleaning Kit to compare prices but could not see anything online so i will have to dig deeper.
I have to say the kit is the best Sensor cleaner that i have ever used but for a tiny plastic lollipop and around 30 sheets of 2 inch square plastic pages £60 is hard to swallow! I paid £36 for my last one from SRS about 3 years ago and still have around 4 sheets of the plastic left, But i did not want to wait until i ran out completely before buying another kit. Luckily i found several sellers on E-Bay, (I just hope i don`t get stung for Tax when it arrives!) I will just have to start charging my friends if they need a Sensor clean in future!

Regards - Pete

Slight error in the above post- Mars bars went from 3 1/2p to 4p in March 1974! I remember because i found a place selling them at the old price and bought 26 of them thinking that they would last months, In fact i ate the lot in one week-end and never touched another for many years afterwards!!!
Shortly after my last post i decided to order another Pentax Sensor Cleaning Kit as my original one is getting low on sticky paper after 3 years of heavy use and was horrified at the cost of something that was probably less than 5p to manufacture costing nearly £60!!! I found one on E-Bay for £25 plus postage from Malaysia.

Regards - Pete

Compared to the Olympus 35mm-4/3 adaptor the Pentax one is incredibly cheap!
I paid £13 for my Pentax 42-bayonet adaptors back in the mid 1970`s,At the time i bought a KM body for around £95, a Mars bar was 2 1/2p, Flying lessons cost £11.50-£12.50 per hour! So i don`t think that allowing you to fit old lenses to a Digital Camera is such bad value.Don`t forget that Pehtax are under no obligation to produce the adaptor at all! If you had a Canon you would have to buy a new lens!
Regards - Pete

It seems that we are not the only ones experiencing these kind of problems-link

Regards - Pete

The Met Police have updated their policies regarding stop-search of photographers....link

Looks positive.

Regards - Pete.

In case anyone is interested, Amazon are selling Camera Armour for K10D and K20D for £9.99. link

Regards - Pete

Do you Format your cards ? As this needs to be done periodically to help avoid corrupted files.

Regards - Pete.

Polar Bear runs off with a photographers tripod during Arctic tour Photoshoot. link

Regards - Pete