Thank you gentlemen, I'll have a look at those!

One of the (many) drawbacks to M$ Windoze is it's lack of support for RAW files, so that you cannot use the Thumbnails or Film Strip option for previewing the contents of a folder. A few months ago they did release a viewer for RAW files but that didn't support Pentax RAW.

I wonder what (if any) viewer other forum users are using? I've been trying dpMagic from http://www.dpmagic.com/

For "proper" opening and editing I use a combination of RAWShooter premium and Adobe Photoelements 4 (with Adobe Camera RAW 3.3)

The dpMagic looks a snip at $9.95 (I don't work for them!)

The trouble with poor spelling it that when you do a search, you may not find what you are looking for. I wish I had seen this as I have just paid more than £1.20 for similar extension tubes

(b.t.w. the results look promising and much cheaper than a proper macro len)

Just started playing with a set of extension tubes I picked up on ebay (NOT the £1.20 ones!)




This was taken with my SMC 50mm 1:1.7 lens and all three tubes (36,20 and 12 mm) 1 sec at f5.6 and ISO200, Tungsten white balance on the DS. The field of view is 16mm

Now I need a set of focusing rails! It never ends

Time to start saving - or for the wife / girlfriend (both if you are lucky ) to get part-time jobs!

I use Elements, and swear by the book "Photoshop Elements for Photographers" by Scott Kelby. (Occasionally I swear at it an on it!)

I can't really justify the cost of the full Photoshop package, and I don't think I need all its facilities. Having proper colour channels in PSE would be nice though.

Matt, you are right- time for a trip to the opticians I think! Might also explain my fuzzy photos!

The version 2 firmware allows Automatic ISO adjustment. Now there are plenty of times when I want control over that, but there are times when it is useful to let the camera set it. I take quite a few photos at orienterng events, which take place in the woods under variable lighting conditions, so I tend to set shutter priority, and set the shutter speed to 1/125 and let the camera do the aperture and ISO.

After reading all these clever tricks, I've a (less) clever one of my own - those collapsible reflectors sold in car accessory shops to keep your car cool when parked in summer sunshine. Main drawback is that while most have a silver side, their other side is usually black, not white.

Yes, that sounds familiar!