I am surprised that so far most comments have been about price and sharpness rather than the risk of moiré, which I thought was the reason for the AA filter. I would imagine that wedding photographers would opt for the K5-II rather than the IIs regardless of price, or is moiré not considered much of a problem?

Laying out wads of cash for small increases in IQ is a common enough experience in this hobby - every time I upgrade a lens in fact. At least the camera body impacts on every image taken, not just those taken with a particular lens.

Well I tried to buy a 11s today but SRS are out of stock

Like Gwyn I am most interested in the low light focussing but extra fine detail cannot be a bad thing. My current K5 will become my back up camera so I will still have it to take shots where moire might be a problem.

I have a K10d as my back up at the moment so it will be better to have both cameras with the same controls and accepting the same accessories.

I just hope that SRS get more stock in before the trade in offer finishes!

Ffordes have a used Manfrotto 341 elbow bracket for £25, which seems a very good price. I was going to buy it until I realised that only my least favourite tripod head takes a RC2 plate.

I like the idea of these but I thought that they were adjustable in both directions so that the centre line of the lens remains the same when the camera is switched 90 degrees.

I'm happy with mine. Nice and sharp, not prone to hunting except in the poorest light and exceptionally good value (can usually be got for a little over £200). Quite a big lump of a lens, of course.

A nice set. There are some fine shots in there.

I have a Samyang 8mm which I am happy with, though I have never used another fisheye to compare it with. What is the advantage of AF and zoom on a fisheye? Is it worth paying extra for?

I know very little about birds so I find the birders contributions to the site educational. All of this has got me wondering how many of the photographs we take in connection with our particular interests and hobbies are appropriate for a general photography forum like this; whether it be trains, planes, automobiles, abandoned buildings, insects or birds.

I have an interest in steam railways, both full size and in miniature, so I take a lot of shots of these which I sometimes post on garden railway forums. I would only post a shot of those subjects on this forum if I felt they were pictorially interesting and not just a record shot. Maybe I am being too restrictive?

Here are two examples of shots which I posted on special interest forums but did not think would be of interest here:

The first is a shot taken on my 1:20 scale garden railway.

The second is a standard 3/4 shot of a steam hauled charter train passing my local station.

In my view these are both record shots rather than of photographic interest. Maybe some of the bird shots also fall into this category? And if they do maybe they are still worth seeing anyway?

I enjoy steam railway photography and my current favourite for this is the Sigma 24-70 f2.8. I have the older non OS version which can be got for not too much money and I find it ideal. The lack at the wide end is not such a problem because very short focal lengths can easily produce some rather odd looking stretched locomotives unless it's for distant 'train in the landscape' shots. The 70mm end can give some very nice slightly compressed 'train approaching' shots.

The unscientific comparisons I have carried out for my own amusement on dull days have so far suggested that at modest apertures centre frame sharpness is much the same for most of my lenses - the differences are more noticeable at the edges or wide open - and in other factors such as distortion and colour rendering as mentioned by many others. I once tested my FA 31mm against a couple of zooms including the 18 - 55 mk2 kit lens and at f5.6 there was no discernable difference in centre sharpness. A few months ago I realised that I had accumulated 7 lenses that covered the 24mm focal length (in my continuing search for the 'perfect' standard zoom) - 16-45, 16-50, 17-70, 18-55, Sigma 17-70, Sigma 24-70 and Tamron 10-24 - so I did a comparative test at f5.6. I do not have a 24mm prime so I included the DA21mm in the test. I took reasonable care - tripod, mirror up, remote release - and once again very little to choose centre frame.

Excellent! I hope they add the ability to disable the timed 'power off' too.