John - provided an accurate description is provided, I don't honestly see a problem. The problems only arise when the description is either "vague", or no description is given.

On a daily basis, I see shipments described as "spare parts", which is vague, since these particular parts may have a dual purpose, for example, in the manufacture of nuclear weapons. A more reasonable (and more accurate) description of these machine parts would be along the lines of "Pentax camera spare parts". Similarly, if the batteries are declared as "Pentax LI-ion battery LI-019 battery for Pentax Kr camera" then it gives somebody the opportunity of making a more informed decision as to its safety, or otherwise, with a second opinion sought from someone in a position of authority on such matters.

I didn't interpret it as a suggestion that I was wrong, John Basically, to the layman, it is difficult to understand why regulations such as these are in place. If I can help to explain the reasoning behind it, then I will do so in the hope that it may offer a bit of enlightenment as to the "why's and wherefor's".

I'd have thought that RM would permit batteries to be carried (at least by UK surface mail) since the goods are being supplied from a verifiable retailer. It's the "Acme" batteries that present the problem. Basically (as I interpret these regulations), batteries fall into any one of three categories:

"White list" - DURACELL, EVER READY, and any other "dedicated" battery manufacturer.

"Grey list" - Panasonic, Sony, Kodak, Samsung, etc. These are likely to have been 3rd-party manufactured by a reputable supplier, where there are stringent quality controls in place.

"Black list" - basically any battery (usually made in a "sweat-shop" in the Far East) where there is no accountability/traceability, and generally are packaged with "made-up" names, but visually similar to the genuine article - Sonething along the lines of "PONY" (sounds like Sony).

The "rule of thumb" being that the white listed batteries can be safely loaded into the cargo hold, with minimum checks. Grey listed ones, subject to stringent checks (and possible repackaging to IATA/ICAO standards) can be placed in the hold only after satisfying these stringent requirements. The black list - 'nuff said!!

@ JohnX - I've been working in the international express industry for the past 25 years or so, and I'm also IATA/ICAO certificated, so I do know the regulations. RM has a tendency to apply "overkill" as they don't really have designated staff to deal with such articles.

Carriage of Dangerous Goods By Air is heavily regulated, and can only be transported once packed in accordance with these regulations, in UN-specified containers, with a dangerous goods note issued to cover these goods. They must never, ever be consolidated onto one Master Airway Bill (MAWB), thus they travel at FULL IATA FREIGHT rates, which is "prohibitively" expensive. I would expect a typical freight quote for Dangerous Goods to be around the £150 (minimum) mark.

Certain items simply cannot ever be uplifted by either commercial, or cargo aircraft. Nothing that relates to photographic equipment falls into this category, thankfully.

@ JohnX - These regulations came into force on Jan 1st this year. So long as branded batteries have their electrical contacts insulated (sticky tape should do the trick), they are safe to be placed in the hold of an aircraft, provided that the battery casing is intact/free from defects such as cracking, etc.

Otherwise, if the batteries are unbranded (Acme Battery Co, etc) - basically of "questionable" quality, then they are not permitted into the aircraft hold, and should be carried upon the person as cabin baggage. Again - I'd strongly recommend taping over the contacts.

The reason for these regulations is that it has been proven that lithium batteries can spontaneously combust when exposed to air. You may recall a few years ago that Sony had a huge problem with laptops because of this very thing, and when a plane is travelling at 35,000 feet - there's only one place it's gonna go in the event of a major incident, and gravity plays a very big part in that decision.

I won a tenner last night, Stuey!!... If I keep plugging away, I might just be able to buy this lens.

Minus the shipping charges, who wants to get stung by HMRC for an additional $1,900(ish) on import tax and vat??...

Looks much better in b/w, don't you think??

1st one's a toughie... Reflected light on highly polished brass isn't easy.

2nd one appears to have a bit of a tungsten-type hue.

3rd one is a bit "heavy" on the red end of the colour spectrum. A bit of PP to tone it down a bit, I think.

4 - That's the one for me, although it might work a bit better in B/W, to make it look a bit more "newspaper feature imagey", in keeping with the events that took place in that street. It might be my dodgy eyesight, but the cars in the pic look a bit out-of-focus.

Well done though!!

I am the boss!!

It's my drivers that get to see the dolly-birds!! I'm being told constantly about the German girls that own Felder Felder by one of our drivers!!

Gotta be worth a few bob!!.. Funnily enough, I was watching Open All Hours (Ronnie Barker) on UK Gold (I think) at the weekend, and behind him on the shelf were several very distinctive Kodachrome boxes on the shelf, along with (I'm almost certain) the first ever Fuji film. Never saw a price displayed for the Kodachrome though, but they were selling bread at about 3p a loaf!!