Closer to home, I would have thought the Lee-Enfield rifle deserves a place. I bought one for $23 many years ago in a Canadian supermarket, so they'd certainly be around in London or Belfast. They've been reproduced on almost every war memorial in Britain, and you can't get much more iconic than that. Also, the deerstalker hat and the Mallard.

Al

Sorry, Doug. Pressed the wrong button on this b****y netbook before I'd finished the post. Obviously, a couple of hours in the pub had nothing to do this this error.

Al

Clearly, you can use whatever lens you want, but a 135mm will "flatten" the image because you'll have to stand farther away to frame it properly, changing the perspective. Focal lengths from 85-105mm (in 135) have been considered the best option by most professionals for many years because they produce the effect they want at a manageable distance. They might just know what they're doing. As others have said, your best bet is to take many shots at different focal lengths and come to come conclusion about which one you consider the "best".

Al

Focal length is a bit of a red herring because it has nothing to do with perspective.

My understanding is that the appearance of the subject is determined by the distance between that subject and the observer, or camera. It just happens that an 85 or 100mm lens on a 35mm camera (and the equivalent FOV on digital) allows you to fill frame at what most people would regard as the best distance to show the subject accurately/favourably.

Using a wider angle means you would have to stand closer (giving your sitter a big nose, because that's how the eye would perceive it at that distance) or, in the case of a telephoto, you'd have to stand farther away to include all of your subject, again changing the perspective. The trick is to decide on the camera/subject distance you need to produce the effect you're after and then pick a suitable lens to frame your subject the way you want.

John has covered the most useful focal lengths.

Al

Don't mention that to one of the world's biggest oil companies (name omitted to protect the guilty), which has just "upgraded" to Vista after much tweaking.

Al

This is quite an interesting read, although it goes well past my level of interest in the topic. I suspect it may be right up Stefan's alley, though.
link

Al

Sadly, my pub refuses to stock WD-40 as a mixer. This is even after I took the time to correct their No Smoking sign, which originally read: "These are no smoking premises." When they told me that "no" was not being used as a Scottish equivalent of "not" but in the conventional English way, I scanned the sign, added a hyphen where it was clearly needed, printed out the corrected version and stuck it up on the wall. The Old Mill Inn at Maryculter, Aberdeenshire, remains the only bar in the country, I suspect, with a properly punctuated No Smoking sign. What thanks do I get? Not even WD-40 to mix with the overproof dark rum.

Al

I was taught to drink gin properly in Canada years ago by an English lawyer who had emigrated there. Tanqueray -- straight. All this nonsense about mixers led to the collapse of the British empire and our present reliance on China to make even our shoes. Spirits should be drunk straight, except for dark run, which goes well with Coke. Mount Gay (the finest of the light rums) should also be drunk straight. Here endeth the lesson -- for the time being, anyhow.

Al

SD readers won't read SDHC cards. This seems the most likely cause of the problem, although, if you've used an SDHC card successfully in that reader before, the issue becomes more complex. Have you tried uploading images directly from the camera to the computer? It might be worth trying to drag and drop a file from your computer on to an SDHC card in the reader, but the card probably won't show up under Windows Explorer if your reader is not designed for it. SDHC readers are cheap these days. I use an Akasa built-in unit that covers most of the card formats and also has a USB connection. It works flawlessly and cost about £14.

Best of luck

Al

I would love to have been a fly on London Wall and seen how this little drama unfolded. As Ray says, there are always two sides.

Al