Well spotted, Stefan. I went from one to the other a few times and missed this. Eyes must be getting old.

Al

Second link to the photo works a treat,Gwyn. Spectacular (as is KD10D's offering). Thanks for sharing them.The URL thing's a mystery. They're both exactly the same.

Al

I'd always be wary of a company that doesn't give an address on its website. If they aren't answering your emails or their phone, trading standards or the small-claims court my be the only way forward. You're certainly entitled to replacement (not substitute) goods under UK consumer legislation.

Good luck

Al

I had a similar problem with my MZ-M just after I bought it a few years ago. It rewound the film completely after the first exposure. This happened only once so I took it no further. Someone on the internet at the time reported a similar but recurring problem with an MZ-M. He sent his camera for repair to Spain, for some reason, and got it back working perfectly for a relatively small charge. I realise you have a different camera but there could be a similar issue. Sadly, even if there is a relatively simple fix, the difficulty will be finding someone to do the job at an economic cost. I suppose it depends what the camera is worth to you. I'm sure others here will have the name of reliable repairers you could discuss it with.

Best of luck

Al

It mystifies me why people get so het up about technology, but then again a lot of things mystify me. My take on the iPad is this, after watching an Apple promotional video: It looks like it would be a lot more user-friendly for web surfing than the netbook I'm using just now. It seems to be well designed, well engineered and offer a reasonably useful range of "apps", as they insist on calling them. I'm not entirely sold on touch screens after using an Archos MP3/MP4 player for a while but this bigger version might well work.

Would I buy one? Not at the price they're asking for the uses I would put it to. Will others? I'll bet they will, in very large numbers. Several friends of mine use iPhones and they're all delighted with them. Again, I wouldn't pay iPhone prices when my £7.95 Nokia makes perfectly good phone calls, but millions of other people see them as value for money and use their capabilities.

I don't see much point in quibbling over the iPad's lack of capabilities in certain areas. It is what it is and you can either buy one or not. Presumably Apple will respond to customer demand as time goes on if it makes commercial sense for them. I've often felt my washing machine should offer slightly different programmes, but I'm not going to get into a fight with Zanussi about this.

I e-mailing an "early adopter" I know with the address of the Apple video and I'll report back on his views (which are probably shared by many) after I see him in the pub tomorrow.

Apologies for the length of this ramble but my CRT TV packed in today and I'm stuck with an old, small portable -- also CRT, of course. My project for tomorrow is to track down my tame TV repairman, if he's still alive.

Al

Professionals are always right, Howard -- just look at the banking industry. Seriously, ducks are fascinating creatures and photographing them can cheer you up no end.

Al

My mate Andy, who claims to be a professional in the field, had a look and says: "Its a farmyard hybrid - probably Mallard x Muscovy Duck!"

Al

Some friends in Spain invited us over for a week a year or so ago. The front of their house in Loja looked splendid. But this was the back.

link

Dennis says he's "working on it".

Al

Just back from the seashore trying out my new 55-300 (thanks, SRS). I had to pump things up to 800 ISO to get the shutter speed and aperture I wanted. The raw results didn't look bad on-screen, although some noise was evident when pixel-peeping. I ran a couple through Neat Image and printed them out at A4. Not a trace of noise. They also looked a heck of a lot better on glossy paper than they did on my LCD, although it's pretty accurate on colours. The moral, if there is one, is that you'll never really know how good your images are until they're printed.

Edit: I haven't reached the heady heights of owning a K7 yet, just a humble GX-20.

Al

If I'm not mistaken (and I usually am), another of these treasures is a Cosmic 35, third left from the Konica Hexar. Had one of these new and it worked surprisingly well.

Al