Think you're right, Doug. I'll suggest an MX-1 (probably a good deal in the US)...but snowballs in hell come to mind.

Al

On the bright side, he has a £1,000 pair of binoculars.

A pal of mine bought an X-5 bridge camera on my recommendation about a year ago. He's now on the "holiday of a lifetime" travelling around America with his wife. Got this email from him today: "Camera seized up day before visit to Grand Canyon! The zoom feature has stopped and camera won't focus ..." I've told him to replace the batteries in the first instance but fear there's something more serious wrong. Any suggestions? He's less than impressed with our beloved marque (as the French say) and I'd love to find a solution before he returns to the UK and hits me over the head with it.

Al

Mine arrived today and it's worth mentioning two things: the instructions are in French only and the mains lead to the charger has a European plug. You can download the quick-start guide and full operating manual in English from the Ricoh website. The power cable has a standard figure-of-eight IEC-320 type C7 connector, available from eBay or other outlets if you don't have one. I'm using the cable that came with my GX-20 (and presumably K20) charger. The case is pretty good and tripod's a little table-top job with flexible legs. All in all, a super deal.

Al

Don't know about the tripod, I'm afraid. I suspect it's a table-top job. They can work pretty well with a light camera. I've got a couple that came free with magazines and one I bought many years ago with a screw to attach it to a tree, if the need arises. It's well worth having one for the odd time you'd use it. Even the magazine give-aways work well enough, certainly for the sort of shooting you're talking about. And it would free up your Strongbow pint for more important things.

Al

Really wish you hadn't mentioned that, Mike. I've been swithering for a couple of weeks about buying an MX-1 after some great feedback and sample shots here, but decided I could live without one. I deal with Amazon.fr quite often and, thanks to Mike's tip-off, should be receiving an MX-1 from them in a couple of days. Didn't help that I'm just back from the pub. Must add that I generally deal with SRS but this deal seemed too good to pass up.

Edit: The total came to £182.84 including case, memory card, tripod and shipping. I have my fears about the tripod.


Al

I switched my netbook over to Windows 7 from XP a couple of weeks ago and yesterday SuperAntiSpyware found 357 tracking cookies. Big Brother's certainly out there.

Amazing coincidence. I'm packing up to move house and came across a "GGS DC Professional LCD Screen Protector". Looks like this one: linkI bought it a few years ago for my GX20 but never got around to fitting it. It's still in the original packaging. The instructions are all in Chinese but a diagram shows it's made up of six layers. Looks solidly built. You can have it for £4 including postage, if you're interested. Just PM me.

Cheers

Al

Seems rather bizarre that the Ricoh Japan website accompanies details for the RH-RA52 with a rectangle saying "sorry, no picture". Perhaps they didn't have a camera to hand.

They sell submarine ("sub") sandwiches, which probably makes it even more claustrophobic.

I like this pic a lot. It gets to the heart of "street" photography -- capturing an instant in the lives of people going about their business, ideally in an interesting way. The original was certainly on the flat side and the later editing efforts have brought out a lot more of the potential. We could argue about the best tonality till the cows come home but it's a case of good work all round.

Al