books/advice

Yes, keeping a log of which settings you use with each picture will be invaluable whilst you're learning the craft - it'll give you something to refer back to and if you take shots that are less than satisfactory you'll be able to work out where you went wrong and correct them for next time around.

This is one of the advantages of digital photography, as the camera itself keeps a log of all the parameters used and appends them to each picture file. Still, whether you're a film or digital user there's no substitute for getting in some practice by actually taking photos, so you're on the right track now.

Don't forget to post some of your results when you've had the film processed.

PS. Warehouse Express have one in their January sale for £69.99: http://www.warehouseexpress.com/?/specials/Jansale.html#Digital%20:%20Lenses (Tamron AF 70-300mm f4-5.6 Di LD Macro 1:2 - Pentax).[/quote]have seen this point raised on another thread, the lens quoted from Warehouse express is "Di LD macro" on the site it is quoted for digital SLR

can I use it with MZ-5?

In this particular instance, yes.

You're right to be cautious though, many lenses that are designed for digital cameras form an image that is smaller than the 35mm film frame - meaning that they'll cut the corners off the pictures (called vignetting).

In the case of this particular lens though the "Di" (digital) designation means that it has special coatings on the rear element to help reduce flare on sensors. While providing (marginally) better performance on digital it certainly won't degrade its performance on film (I doubt it'll make any difference at all to be honest).

The Tamron 70-300 is quite an old design that's now on its 3rd (4th?) incarnation - it predates digital SLRs and will work just fine on your new MZ-5. If you have a look on this thread:

https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6788&start=15

you'll se that Chris at SRS is also offering it at £69.99 including postage for forum members - I doubt you'll get a better deal anywhere!

thanks for the clarfication on that.


The offer from SRS sounds good and from the books I've been reading there seems to be a huge amount of photography taken with 200-300mm lenses.

Jeff

I suspect the books you have been reading reflect particular interests. If you were reading about architectural photography, or portraiture, the choice of lenses would be very different.

Be careful you don't spend money on lenses you don't need. (Says the voice of experience.)


G

thanks for that george, I am trying to take my time. It alll too eaasy to just start buying lenses and other kit.

My thoughts at the moment are for ~ 200 - 300mm zoom and a prime 50mm F1.4 but nothing definite yet. Just going to try a few films with what I've got and see how it goes.

I was reading a book about colour photography somebody called Michael Brusselle and every pricture in the book has used a warm up filter 81a , b or c and sometimes a polarising filter as well. So it would seem that they are another 'must'.

Would be interested in other peoples opinion?

An 81A filter is very nice for warming up the images. I used to use one almost all the time on colour slide film.