More insults and misdirection. Well on form!

Don, you're wasting your time. People think nothing of buying a 1000 buck camera every few years (or even every year) but get them to spend more than their weekly allowance on a tripod? Impossible. They'll just say you have an agenda or that your opinion is "tainted" or that you want everyone to spend 1500 pounds.

Time to give it a rest.

No secret, no magic, just shots any camera can take when the light is good and you only require web shots. If you want DSLR quality get an SLR. If you require 4x5 quality get a 4x5. No short-cuts exist. And any new technology will be superseded in from six to eighteen months.

I had better not. This is a family forum.

Pentax often sneaks performance improvements into their firmware updates and does a terrible job of telling anyone. Why not update? It's easy.

All the photo magazines you'll find on the shelf (except BJP) are varying degrees of rubbish, driven by advertising and targeted for readers who haven't yet figured out the internet exists. They have to repeat the same stories and helpful hints over and over again, in order to fill the gaps between advertising. If they got into the important considerations of photography (politics, aesthetics, ideology) they would alienate a readership brought up to hate anything that might hint at intellectualism.

I am not sure why anyone pays attention to them.

The other option is micro-four-thirds. I bought the Olympus EP1 and the Panasonic 20mm, which is an excellent normal lens. Much cheaper than the Fuji X100 and more flexible, since you can use any lens from any system on your camera.

But unless you restrict yourself to a small lens the size factor is not that different than a smaller Pentax system. I have discussed this at some length on my blog recently.

It's no big deal to remove the dreaded pin. Banish your fears and read on!

The Ricoh Pin Fix

Yes, it's a serious flaw. No, no-one who doesn't have money burning a hole in their pocket would buy one. Next question?

So you agree but think it's silly? Hard to decipher from this what you really think. (And to set the record clear I suggested something south of half a thousand.)

No doubt adequate for your needs, which is cool. Aluminum is not light enough for me, however. Having trekked tens of km in such a way I wouldn't want to again. My requirements are lightweight, strong, durable and flexible. Also must fold small enough for minimum luggage. Put those requirements together and see if there is anything available at the £180 price point.

Perhaps in the same way as your lack of experience with anything better is tainting your view?

In the same way a camera is simply an air-tight container with a hole in it. Yet few would be content to use only a pinhole camera. (I have an associate who does just that, by the way, in case you read me the wrong way again. This is merely a statistical observation, not a judgement.)

Since it will never go out of fashion you could buy one tripod and keep it for 25 years. If you spend 500 that's 20 quid a year. I'll bet you spend more than that on camera gear.

My income is likely in the bottom percentile of people on this board. So I would never suggest spending money needlessly. You can get a good camera for 200 and a good lens for 50. But if you need a good tripod that meets all my requirements you need to spend somewhat more. Want to compromise on one or more criteria? Your needs different than mine? Understandable.