I have a Sigma 17-70 & 100-300 and my camera can tell the difference.

I hadn't really given it any thought about how it did it.

There is a used 55-300mm for £189 from SRS at the moment, you will get great shots with this. No matter what lens you will buy there will be shots you miss.

For me, a safari was the greatest trip of my life and if I hadn't had a camera with me, it would still have been the best. You don't want to experience it all looking through a lens (even an expensive one!).

If IQ + cost is the most important thing to you I would reconsider hiring though, for the price of 'consumer zooms' you could hire a 'pro zoom' with insurance.

Sorry, didn't read your original post close enough where you said you didn't want heavy or to rent!

Pentax 55-300mm get's the best reviews if not heavy or expensive

It may be cheaper to hire from SRS?

Pentax Hire

About £150ish for a 60-250mm or DA*300mm from that link, though you will probably want to add insurance.

I'm not sure about the lenses you mention but I went to Zambia a couple years ago and the majority of my images we're at 300mm. This is enough for most animals though I could have used something longer for birds.

Do you already own the DA*200mm? If so you may be better spending the money on a TC rather than 55-300mm.

We were limited to 12kgs each for luggage / carry on but still managed to get my Sigma 100-300mm on board. I invested in lighter weight clothes rather than sacrificing my camera gear! Don't forget the 'inside out, back to front' rule

Anyway, I'm jealous of your trip, wish I was going back

Robocopy for me. I understand what it's doing and why and I use it at my job as well as to backup my own personal files. I'm happy for you to explain why xxcopy is better though

In theory phones can store private data and have access to several of your accounts so you would want to password protect them.

In reality passwords on phones only really stop you from accidentally dialing someone when it's in your pocket as you can still get access to most things on a phone without a password anyway.

In practice I am much more careful with my camera than my phone (I don't have a smart phone, just a standard brick) so I would not want to password protect it.

It's disappeared!

Can I confirm that the only differences between the K5II and the original K5 are the new SAFOX-X auto focus module and the slightly different screen on the back?

I've been looking for a comparison between the two but even the one on the Pentax web-site lists the K5II having the SAFOX-IX+ module, etc

Windows Picture and Fax Viewer ignores profiles anyway so won't help, though it may explain the differences.

I'm referring to Win XP - not sure about Vista / 7 / 8