I bought a lens from Microglobe five or six years ago and asked about the guarantee situation because of the "grey" import channels they used. They said they would handle any guarantee issues directly, which I took to mean they'd simply replace the lens. It arrived in good time and has worked flawlessly ever since (sadly not on a Pentax camera). I'd have no hesitation in buying from them again if the price was right, but SRS and others often beat them by a surprising amount.

Al

This may not be what you're aiming for but the duotone technique can be pretty effective. There's a tutorial of sorts here geared to Photoshop, but most image editing packages work in much the same way.

Al

That just reminded me -- the Samsung GX20 (and presumably the K20D) has one built in. Always meant to find a use for it .

Al

Interesting. On my netbook with Firefox, the bike was clearly green. I copied it into my image editor and the highlights on the bike showed up using the "colour picker" as having hardly any red, very little blue and the maximum amount of green.

On my PC and using AOL, which is a version of IE, the bike was blue. The colour picker in the image editor confirmed this, showing virtually no red, not a lot of green and the maximum amount of blue.

Both machines are running Windows XP.

PS The optical illusion doesn't work only on computer screens. It's equally baffling when printed out.

Al

This link for another Pentax compact says the number of pixels in 12M and 12MH are the same but your memory card will hold far more images in 12M. As you suggest, Terry, it looks like the difference is the amount of compression. 12MH could stand for 12M (High quality) or something similar. Or perhaps not. It would have been helpful if they'd explained this clearly. link

Al

Quite right, Smeggy. The colour balance seems to need a bit of a tweak. I've no experience of more sophisticated scanners, but I suspect you always have to manipulate the colour balance to some extent from negative scans. All in all, though, I think I can get the occasional print from this set-up with less effort than I could with a more expensive unit. The chateau photo (with a bit more PP) came out perfectly on paper, which is my main concern. Plus, I'll be damned if I can remember the real colour of the roof tiles.

Al

I'm always amazed when people say they've "won" an item on EBay. What they mean is they've been prepared to pay more than anyone else for it. Funny sort of "win".

Al

I wonder if Samsung cameras are overly picky about their cards. My Samsung NV5 (a vastly underrated compact) refused to work with a Kingston card that the retailer's "memory finder" insisted would be fine.

Meanwhile, as promised, here are a couple of rough scans from the Kodak P461. The prints are a lot more impressive.link

Al

PS Merry Christmas

It is indeed. Sadly the price had gone up. I bought mine for £88 as a Today's Special Value or whatever they call it. It seems well built. I'll post a couple of images on Flickr later tonight if I get a chance and post a link.

Cheers

Al

Many thanks. Another mystery of life explained.

Al