A Banger Rally - To Banjul

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Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH

It seems the Bigma has skyrocketed in price!! I have the older 135-400MM APO which is fun to use, but has the focusing speed of an asthmatic badger.

BTW,SRS Microsystems has the 150-500MM on offer for £599:

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Yup went up to SRS last weekend, once again I'll commend their customer service and prices.

Had a play with the 50-500mm and decided I prefered the much cheaper 150-500mm, and at that price in pentax fit its quite a bargin. So far only done some test shots, seem to find OS-1 is best, with in body shake off, or in body shake on OS off... Hopefully the weekend after next I'll spend all sat playing with it :)

Also that pentax Q, with its 8.5mm lens at £349 + £50 cashback. Temptation! Sure the quality is crap, but its tiny...

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Originally Posted by TheAnimus

Yup went up to SRS last weekend, once again I'll commend their customer service and prices.

Had a play with the 50-500mm and decided I prefered the much cheaper 150-500mm, and at that price in pentax fit its quite a bargin. So far only done some test shots, seem to find OS-1 is best, with in body shake off, or in body shake on OS off... Hopefully the weekend after next I'll spend all sat playing with it :)

Also that pentax Q, with its 8.5mm lens at £349 + £50 cashback. Temptation! Sure the quality is crap, but its tiny...

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A 500MM should be quite fun to play with especially with a crop body. Even with a 400MM it is surprising how much more reach there is over a 300MM.

The Pentax Q is really solidly made and is the modern day incarnation of the Pentax A110. The latter is amazing when you consider it is a SLR too! Had a look at a few proper reviews of the Pentax Q - its not that bad in good light for a small compact with a tiny sensor:
http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/pe...review/gallery

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Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH

A 500MM should be quite fun to play with especially with a crop body. Even with a 400MM it is surprising how much more reach there is over a 300MM.

The Pentax Q is really solidly made and is the modern day incarnation of the Pentax A110. The latter is amazing when you consider it is a SLR too! Had a look at a few proper reviews of the Pentax Q - its not that bad in good light for a small compact with a tiny sensor:
http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/pe...review/gallery

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Indeed, it didn't do well in reviews, but at the £300 including a prime, price tag, its very tempting... Actually if you want a weathersealed k20d (no video, not great low light compared to k-5) and the WR 18-55mm, pop down to a london club event I'll lend it to you, could easily see it been swapped for a Q now!

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Originally Posted by TheAnimus

Indeed, it didn't do well in reviews, but at the £300 including a prime, price tag, its very tempting... Actually if you want a weathersealed k20d (no video, not great low light compared to k-5) and the WR 18-55mm, pop down to a london club event I'll lend it to you, could easily see it been swapped for a Q now!

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Is the K20D any good above ISO800?? This is why I am quite interested in the K5 especially with the sensor based antishake. The D7000 looked interesting but now is £250 more than the K5 and is not weather sealed either and lacks sensor based stabilisation.

ATM,rocking an ancient Sony A200(same sensor as Nikon D80) with a plethora of midrange Minolta and Sigma lenses. The A200 is pretty useless above ISO800 and the latest Sony offerings don't fill me with confidence too so will be probably changing systems in the future.

Absolutely terrible compared to the k5!

Thanks for the whole epic post !

HI

Me and my friends have just signed up to one it looks really cool.


do you have any advise never done one before, never drove abroad before.

Sian.:)

Get all your friends to collect their spirits bottles (ie whiskies, gins, vodkas). Then fill each one about 1/3rd to 1/2 with the cheapest stuff you can buy. These are your bribe boose. In dry countries people love to be given alcohol, buying it is a sin, but being given it is perfectly fine. People always wanted our vodka.

A sump guard, saved our skin more than once.

Get a diesel, you will save like £500 in fuel if you have an economic diesel engine.

If you want photography tips (as this is a photography forum!) plastic bags, lots of them, the sandwich kind, double wrap everything you have. That Sarahan sand is like nothing else I've come accross, gets in EVERYWHERE. I was still finding it in my rucksack a year later.

Be pragmatic in your choice of photography equipment, good skylight filters or similar are a must, if you don't have WR lenses, consider using primes only. The sand is also rather salty, so bring a paintbrush ment for makeup rocket blowers just don't help until your home. I'd really consider carefully bringing anything that isn't weather resistant.

The most part is be friendly with the other people on the convoy, they saved our bacon on more than one occasion as we did theres.

Oh and a dixie horn of ebay for like £20 was great investment. Best way to enter a roundabout in Rabat (where people were going any and which way round it :S) is to hammer the horn!