This does the best job I've come across short of a "proper" negative scanner: link.

If you want to spend more, check out the Plustek range. They're very good with negatives but, if you do a lot of work with slides, you may want something with greater dynamic range -- although any shortcomings won't be apparent in most cases.

Al

I did almost the opposite in December. Scenic snowy landscape ... dial in a little EV comp to brighten up the snow ... and nothing. The EV comp button didn't work. Thought the low temperature must have affected my GX-20 and went home. Turned out I'd knocked the mode selector dial to "green", which doesn't allow exposure comp. It's stupid, but all too easy to do if you don't check your settings. I'm sure it won't be the last time.

Al

The water shot was a tricky one to expose properly because of the difference in brightness in the scene. In an ideal world, you could have used a graduated neutral-density filter (with the dark bit at the bottom) to darken the water, bringing it closer in tone to the land. Alternativly, you could have exposed for the water and brightened the background in post-capture processing or even tried metering for the land, then the water and splitting the difference.

As it stands, the water needs to be darkened a bit in PP. Depending on your software, this would best be done by duplicating the image into a new layer and working on the water on the duplicate. That way, you're not making irreversible changes to the original image.

Whatever you do, I'd be inclined to crop off the bottom fifth or so of the image. The expanse of water at the bottom attracts the eye but doesn't contain enough interesting detail to justify it.

On the flower shot, I don't think you can do much more with it. It's out of focus. Perhaps try that one again.

I know you're reluctant to switch to manual, but it's probably the best way to get to grips with exposure. It was all we had in the "old days" and provides a good grounding in the relationship between aperture and shutter speed -- the key to photography. Give it a try, and good luck.

Al

A lot of Welsh fans without tickets for Murrayfield games used to travel up the Black Bull Hotel in Lauder, about 30 miles from Edinburgh, and watch it on the bar TV. It always made for an unusually lively night in town.

Al

Thank you.

Al

Do you know the trigger voltage of the 283, by any chance? The older models, generally made in Japan, can fry digital cameras but the newer ones, generally made elsewhere, seem to be OK. I'm keen to replace my high-voltage 283 with one of the newer ones. Like you, I've no idea of the going rate but I don't think you're too far off the mark. They're very good units.

Al

Edit: Some on this forum are convinced high trigger voltages won't harm a Pentax. They could be right. But I'd rather be safe than sorry (I've done the sorry bit too often).

I hadn't noticed it in the title (must read the big print too). This may be worth a try. I have some splendid photos of a Minolta S414 and some aged Ensigns. £50 a pop sounds fair. Number available = unlimited. Discount to forum members.

Al

I'm not sure that one line of small print at the bottom of a lengthy and comprehensive advertisement would get the seller off the hook against claims of deception. Currys certainly wouldn't be allowed to send you a photo of a washing machine just because they stuck a similar line at the end of their ads. A judge, I suspect, would find that the primary purpose of the advertisement was to deceive and rule accordingly. Small print is used to clarify the details of a transaction and not to fundamentally change an offer that has been laid out clearly beforehand.

Al

I'm sure that's right. The problem seems to lie with the chaps at a lower level who draft the documents. Their abhorrence of the comma and hyphen, in particular, means that many legal documents don't mean what they're intended to mean. Other lawyers will get the gist of them because they don't use commas or hyphens either, (preceding comma optional) but lot of legalese doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

I've had many a colourful discussion with lawyers about this, but the result is always the same: you end up paying them a lot of money.

Al

You can't go wrong following a lawyer's advice on accurate, concise, unambiguous and properly punctuated English.

Al