I have the same problem with a pan & tilt head and heavy lens when pointing skywards at the moon for instance, whereas on the level it is ok.

I have been waiting for weeks for someone here to put me out of my misery but today I finally succumbed. Numerous times I have hovered over the buy button, only for my sensible head to tell me I don't need it, it will likely only get used a few times before staying in the cupboard, and all the times I hoped someone would buy it first to resolve my quandary. But no, it stubbornly remained unwanted on the shelf at Ffordes Photographic until today - they must be relieved to finally be rid of it! So now I am looking forward to receiving a Pentax 85mm F2.8 SMC FA Soft Focus lens in what appears a nice clean condition.

A pack of A3 Hahnemuhle Bamboo print paper 290g. Pretty pricey but I had a couple of sheets in a sample pack and printed a flower pic which came out beautifully.

I hope you received a good price! Was it uploaded to a stock agency, and if so which ones do you use?

Vic, stuffing a cow is pretty low down on my list of priorities!

Thanks all, I used the TAV setting and experimented with the +/- button, checking the histogram. I knew I could recover some shade in pp and have ruined too many shots in the past with blown highlights! Luckily the bird was in no rush to move on whilst I took my time.

The River Dene runs through the centre of my village and runs shallow and wide below the road bridge next to the post office. I happened (!) to be crossing with my K1 + 150-450mm lens and spotted this egret in all his breeding feathered splendour fishing below, nicely caught in the sunlight contrasting against the dark river bank and shallows. I cannot help thinking he spent half the time admiring his reflection in the water!

Yeah but now the new DFA* 85mm is coming over the horizon.......!

New is in a pristine state and comes with a warranty of one or two years; if I could buy used in the same condition I would but the price saving is often quite small compared to Black Friday type deals and there is either a limited or no guarantee which just might turn out to be expensive. Having said that I did buy a 24-70mm lens at a good price from someone who had hardly used it and was swopping systems, but only after handling it before handing over the cash.

This started because there are a couple of lenses I think I want but cannot justify like the 77mm Limited, the price of which I was following for a while, but on reflection that hesitancy tells me it is right to forget it and save the money.

It isn’t just SRS, it seems across the board so where others priced lenses at a similar level they have changed as well. I too use SRS as preferred supplier but sometimes use others if they have what I want in stock and at a good price, I don’t think it hurts to patronise other Pentax stockists as well although I draw the line at Amazon.