You are right MrC... I was thinking supply was not keeping pace with demand. The idea of price fixing seems unusual these days as well.

Ultimately (and I'm a chemist, not an economist) the free market will decide. I'm just saddened that we place trust in certain suppliers for their advice when we should remind ourselves that they are a business.

Thanks for the pointers to stores who seem to be customer friendly. I will feel mildly guilty if I don't buy from SRS but then I'm sure its not their fault they have increased the price of a product they were offering to me at the lower price and suggesting I rang back a few days later when it was back in stock. The reason for my deliberation was the glass vs new body discussion between the order of getting the DA*60-250 and or the K5. Both have now increased in price.

I wonder how we can have confidence in suppliers if we can't take a few days to consider the choices offered. Buyer beware -as was said its capitalism and I have my capital in my pocket!

Whats going on. I see competition is alive and well. Where dealers were sub £950 for a K5 body they have all, like synchronised swimmers, raised prices to that lovely accurate figure of £999. Apologies for the sarcasm -its really annoyance that affordability has been taken away. At least when we buy cars every dealer ends up with a different selling price.

If anyone knows of a prodealer who is being more competitive please whisper their name!

One for the review list Steve, thanks. Is that a lens you have worked with? It sounds great to have the DOF options from the 2.8 but maybe its not so much different from my 50-135 2.8....?

The Sigma 100-300 was mentioned above also.

I have a slight down on Sigma based on the performance of the budget zoom (70-300) which was the half price offer at Jessops when I got my K10.

As an after-thought I also saw the comments in PC Pro about Pentax DSLRs not offering the lens choices that the you know what brands do...

Many thanks to everyone on here! There are many super pictures and links.

I'm slowly reviewing the suggestions but early impressions do show that the 60-250 has some sort of edge even if it sounds like I'd need to eat three of those breakfast biscuits every day to handle it.

Is it fair to say that the 60-250 gives an image with the overal look and balance of the 50-135 DA* because thats how it looks at the moment.

Thanks to DrOrloff and Mike P for their super pictures. Mike's squirrel shot with the 55-300 shows what i also seem to get. Its very slightly soft and shows that blue mist in places (maybe not the best way of describing it -its not CA I don't think)

The two birds above are just so sharp it would be hard to imagine how you'd improve upon them. Have they had some added sharpness in PP?

I must confess to starting this thread having been advised on the DSLR section to change my lenses before thinking about the upgrade to K5 (from KX and K10) on the basis that the glass would make a bigger difference than the K5 would -using my existing lenses (and the option to change everything is not an option price wise!)

Thanks everyone -hope this thread will also beenfit others with tele-zoom interests.

Geoff

Good info Steve, I'm watching lenses and the K5 at the moment (well dreaming costs nothing) but I see that SRS are at or about the prices you mention at least for the DA*50-135. The K5 body is still near on a grand tho. You didnt notice a price for the DA*60-250 did you?

cheers, Geoff

I'll look forward to seeing anything Neal can find to show the two Pentax lenses.

Has Stefan anything from the 100-300? I must admit that the 250mm end is where i'll be much of the time, tho the zoom is good for when the action comes closer.

Thanks all, Geoff

Hi All

I have discovered something that is mentioned within the depths of certain threads on here but maybe worthy of specific mention?

If you set the camera on manual and the flash to manual dischage then any gun attached to the hot shoe will act to fire a slave gun. With some trial and error the correct exposures are soon determined.

So far IU haven't been able to make the pop up flash work as the optical trigger for the slaves as even in manual mode the camera's own flash must emit a pre-flash which triggers the slave ahead of the shutter opening.

Apologies to the many who already know about this workaround but hope it helps others in some way.

Cheers, Geoff

Hi MostlyHarmless -I have an old 200mm Pentacon F4 M42 screw which I tried on my K bodies but find it very soft and also quite heavy, built like a tank no doubt. Thanks for your comments on the 60-250 - have you ever been able to use the 50-300 on similar shots?

Also I like Don's style and surely a glass of beer is far cheaper than new camera glass!