Years ago I had a Miranda 135mm which I used on a Ricoh KR10. I really liked it but, but then again, things have moved on in lens design an awful lot since then......Petri of course are more famous for making little flat glass dishes to grow nasty bugs in.

Got to be worth a go at £30 though.....

I bought a more powerful non-proprietary battery for my K7 for £15....

It's a shame to see another "defector". But then again, I defected from Olympus...I guess it all depends on what we want from photography. I can definitely see the attraction of long, fast lenses, especially for shooting wild animals, but don't think I would ever want to rent lenses, as it seems to me like chucking money away, much as down here in Doha some people lease cars rather than buying them. I bet in the long term you end up spending a fortune buying a huge Nikon lens....
A colleaugue of mine has the same camera, and it is a nice bit of kit. Lenses are a bit on the steep side though...
Good luck with your new gear!

I have been messing about with some shots of Doha, and can't decide if I prefer an hdr version (though the water has been blended with one of the original shots)




or this single exposure. The streak in the sky is an aircraft, couldn't decide on whether to remove it.




Any comments appreciated!

I really like the fruit stall, but the 1st B+W is my favourite, the blossoms make it look a bit infra-red. The robin is nice but could perhaps have done with a bit of flash, the light is a bit flat. I also like the spring blossoms with the lamp.

It's a shame about the big bit of cloth in the shot of the Chrysler building, it detracts from a great shot, the lines of the buildings are lovely and the clouds set off the Chrysler building nicely.

I nearly always use camera selected multi-point, and half-shutter press. I tend to move the camera and keep pressing the shutter halfway until one of the points loks where I want it. However, I have to say this does not always seem to work....but it generally seems to, and is easier to use at wide angles than just the centre point. It's not as fiddly as it sounds, usually only taking a secod or two. I started doing this with my previous slr, which had less focus points, but it still seems to work on the K7. It usually doesn't take long to get the focus where I want it, and it's easier to recompose if the focus has locked on one of the outside points.

For moving subjects I use the centre point and half shutter press.

For landscapes/maximumum dof I use manual focus and hyperfocal focussing, which relies on some guesswork using zooms unless you refer to a table. When I had a Sigma 10-20 on my previous camera I got to know the best setting for maximum dof, but of course it's a lot easier at extreme wide angles when infinity has to be in focus.

Like Womble I also try not to go over ISO 400.

The second shot here is stunning imho. It's the pick of the bunch. I really like the reflections and the boats in the foreground, and the wb does look much better than the previous two shots.

I liked the second and fifth shots the most, which just goes to show how subjective it is looking at photgraphs! I like the different patterns of the second shot, and the strong graphic shapes of the boardwalk in the fifth shot with the stones adding some texture.

I have never heard the expression "chimp" before? Where does it come from? I don't do it as often as I should I think. I also like the idea of the camera resetting every time I switch it off, will have to do thet methinks.

Very nice shot, great detail on the feathers

Personally I like the shot of the steps the most: The first pic is nice, but in my opinion the fence and wall spoil it a bit. However, the flowers in the foreground really add something to the shot. I also like the lsat shot, except for part of the salt heap being missing. The first and last shots also have lovely contrast between the blue and white, but I think the composition in both lets them down a bit. But that's just an opinion, and they are all better than the vast majority of mine!