A bit over your price, but may be worth looking at the Go-Lite Shrangli-la 5. 2.46kg 2.9m x 2.9m floor (outer), 1.8m high £355. quick to pitch and 3 seasons
http://www.golite.com/Product/ProdDetail.aspx?p=370005110&mc=154&t=&lat=
BackpackingLight (they are members on BCUK) sell them
http://www.backpackinglight.co.uk/product345.asp?PageID=126
The smaller version, the Shangrli-la 3 has an excellent reputation.
You can pitch it outer only to give a large single skin shelter, or with the nest (inner tent) to give a large midge free area. The nest can also be pitched on its own to give a midge free area if camping in a different tent.
Backpacking light sell an adaptor to let you fit two walking poles together to replace the central pole to reduce weight. The nest is all mesh so it gives no extra warmth, and several people with the smaller version have sewn their own solid material half sized inner tent for the winter. This gives a large porch and warmer inner.
Disadvantages are that the steep sides mean that the floor space at the edges of the tent is restricted in how usable it is. The steep sides also mean (as with all tipi designs) that when you open the door, rain falls into the inner. On one occasion vertical rain blew through the ventilation hood on the peak and rain dripped into the inner. I am told that this is an unusual occurrence ("never heard of that happening before" was the response when I raised it). Pitching is quick but, on balance, is more difficult than poles being fed through sleeves as it seems to take more tweaking to get the pitched tent set up "just right" . Having said that from bag to pitched (sufficient to get out of the rain), the Shrangri-la is probably faster, you just then spend longer, (after rain is stopped) tweaking it.
The quoted weight does not include the weight of guy lines or pegs for all the guying points, only the main pegging points.
There is a loop at the peak and two side loops that allow a light tarp to be clipped to the outer and extended over the entrance to protect the door and give a sheltered cooking area. They are not designed for this, but seem to be in the right places for the job. You can also unclip the nest from the outer at the door end and roll it back to give a large cooking area in bad weather. The front panels of the outer can also be unpegged to give a panoramic view while zipped up inside the no-see-um inner.
Although, I have just bought one, my experience with it so far is limited to the pitching it in my (very windy) Garden, and it is looking very good.
Graham
