MTG – that was my worry, at least with a camelbak it is fairly secure on my body

Boxfish – what bum bag do you use?

Perfect – I’ve just ordered one.

Cheers

Ebay. I sold my 350d with kit lens, lowepro bag, several cf cards, and 4 batteries for just shy of £200 this time last year. To be honest the 350d was more than enough for me, I just fancied an upgrade.

Also keep an eye on Canon ebay outlet, they often have good deals although 150 may be a little on the low side I guess.

McHamish… do you have a price in mind/pics? By chance, I’m down in London (Wimbledon area so I guess not far) on Saturday afternoon / Sunday morning. It is maybe better to chat offline? My email is in my profile if you are interested

Cheers

Ian

You can pick up a 70-300 IS on eBay for about £275, new. Originally I did think that £100 between the 70-300 and 70-200L would be worth it, but when the difference is closer to £200 then I’m not sure I can justify it.

So what I can deduce from this thread is that the 70-300 is a good lens, unless you’ve got the money to pay for Canon L lenses. Anybody care to disagree?

Canon ebay outlet currently has a 70-200 f4L IS for £700. It doesn’t list it as IS, but when you look at the detail it suggests it is. Bit pricey for me mind!

Slogo – I’ve got a week in the north island, then 2 weeks driving around the south in a camper van on my own. I can’t wait! I’m off to Perth for Christmas afterwards which I’m not particularly looking forward to if I’m honest with you! The NZ trip is the reason that I got the Sigma 10-20, I have been very pleased with it so far. I have been reading a landscape photography books, and I’ve been very surprised at how many photos are taken at focal lengths > 70mm. It’s a good excuse to get the range of focal lengths covered too….

Cougar; better in what way?

kiwifiz… I’ll go and look on eBay now!

McHamish, I live in Warwick, how about you?

Sigma 10-20 and a sigma 17-70 f2.8-4 :-)

edit: Oh and a 50mm f1.8 and a knocked up macro lens..

Nice video. Like your saxon mill video too, we aren’t too far away…. you’ll have ridden near my house on that ride.

Very pleased with my blackberry PlayBook. There aren’t loads of apps, but it is cheap, good for email, browsing, video, pics etc. It is much more slick than I thought it would be too.

What a fantastic story! Tony really does have a great talent.

I had my session with him a couple of weeks ago, and on my first trip to Cannock last weekend, I was not only able to keep up with my mate (who is normally off like a rat up a drain pipe), but on the sections where I led, he couldn’t keep up with me. I’ve never had to wait at the end of a section for a mate before!! It was one of the best rides I have had for years, and my mate enjoyed it too as he was having to push himself to keep up with me :-)

Wait until payday, check the money has entered your account, then don’t bother turning up?!

Cheers for all of the advice (except maybe for butcher), I’ve ordered some coffee from HasBean, so hopefully that will arrive tomorrow. If I get chance this weekend I’ll adjust the pressure valve on my Gaggia, and see how I get on from there. Maybe I’ll look to get a grinder after all, but for now I’ll probably stick with pre-ground HasBean in the short term if I like it.

Ian

Teacake – cheers for the tip about turning it off. I’ve changed the portafilter; the original one was a right pain as I kept dropping the crema insert into the bin!

Re the pressure modification, do you mean this Pressure Mod?

Any particular coffee recommendations? Hasbean has got such a selection that I don’t know where to start

To save me using google, is it possible to go tubeless with any tyre and rim combination? I found a purely off road route to work last week, but got a puncture on the first trial run, so I was thinking of going tubeless on the inbred commuter…. But I would rather not buy a new set of wheels and tyres.

Bathams +10000

The Boot Inn is an obvious candidate, I haven’t been for maybe 4/5 years but I seem to remember it is a bit of a gastro pub. They’ll have a couple of ales on no doubt, which will be ok, but I doubt they will be the finest pint you’ll ever have had. I live in Warwick and there are very few good real ale pubs in Warwick itself; the Cape of Good Hope (on the canal) does a good Butty Bach / Hook Norton, or the Wild Boar in Warwick always has a selection of 5 or 6 good beers on. Neither are great food pubs, although the Cape does decent cheap ‘pub food’. I’m afraid I don’t know anywhere close to Hockley Heath though.

Cheers

Ian

Maybe they have improved over recent years but my old headshok was horrible. I sold it on eBay though for £170 (!) and replaced it with some rebas. It transformed the bike and made me want to ride regularly again. :-)

Ha ha, yes; it was rather useful!!

See you tomorrow; I’ll keep off the instant coffee at breakfast!

Onzadog – I think I’ll take the bike as a minimum!! :)

That’s good to know, I’ll leave as much in the car as possible then

Cheers all; I’m actually getting nervous/excitement thinking about it now. Maybe a cheeky half tonight will help with that…

Fotmob on android is very good and gives you alerts for your favourite teams. I’m not sure it is available on iTunes though.

I’ve been for the last 3, it is great fun irrespective of the weather. I can’t say that it changed my view on life though!

Another way would be to follow me next Wednesday… I can’t wait!

I did spot that review but thought I’d take a risk… I’ll hopefully recover most of my money back if I sell it on, the Canon is likely to cost double the Sigma, even 2nd hand. I’m going to borrow a Canon 15-85 from a colleague, so I’ll do a compare and contrast. To be honest, I think I’ll get more out of my photos by improving my technique!

Cheers for the info though, it is all good reading

Well I just picked up a 17-70 sigma on the bay…. I figured that if I didn’t get on with it, then I can probably sell without losing too much, and it might be the step up from the kit 18-55 that I need to scratch my itch…

A 24-70 would be great but is too much like mega money for me!

Cheers for the feedback so far.

I’m also thinking of getting something such as a Canon 17-50 f2.8 or the Sigma 17-70, but I saw the 85mm f1.8 and all of the positive reviews around it, and wondered if anybody uses it successfully for bike related shots.

Maybe I’ll give it a go with my 50mm 1.8; at least the camera will pack quite small in my Camelbak.

Cheers

My synology DS211j does exactly what you want (mine runs squeezebox server), and they are very well reviewed and supported. They are a little more expensive than the likes of Buffalo, but I have been very pleased with mine.

Have you thought about eBay?

I recently sold my 350d on ebay with 18-55 lens, 4 batteries, lowepro bag, filters, and a couple of memory cards for about £190. It took very good photos, and this would leave you with £300 spare to buy other lenses – such as a 50mm f1.8, a zoom, etc. In a few years she may want to upgrade the camera, so better to get some decent lenses

But if you want to buy brand new, then that is a very good deal

Also check out the canon outlet on eBay – they sometimes have some cheap deals on there – all with 1 year manufacturer warranty.

Canon 1000d kit for £240 Linky…..

Maybe not what you are looking for, but Sportsdirect had Helly Hansen base layers for £15 a few weeks back.

If you get a PS3 you automatically get iPlayer, ITV player, 4OD etc, and then the addition of a PlayTV box sorts you out for the PVR side of things. :D

Do you have a ps3? If so, then look for a playtv box on eBay 2nd hand. They don’t make them anymore, but they plug into the ps3 and then the ps3 acts as a brilliant pvr. Mine cost me £13!

Where are you jkomo? If you are local to Warwick then I have a sigma 10-20 that you could use for a few shots