Yes I am a member - have been for several years. Good value? I think it *could* be good value if you work at it - but I do not often visit NT properties. I tend to use an NT carpark once every Preston Guild, so for me it isn't really good value at all.


Andrew

And now for something completely different ........ a dogfish??




Just a little modest chicanery and cropping

Andrew

There are some might fine turntables - one or two of which have been mentioned in this thread. Most turntables, though, are execrable (no matter how well maintained) and their owners will rightly believe that for them CD knocks spots off vinyl.

I have several LPs that, to me, sound better than anything I have heard on CD. On the other hand, I have only a couple of identical recordings on both LP and CD - and blindfold, I'm not sure anyone could tell which is which or form a consistent view of which is better.

Andrew

CD sounds fine (mostly) on my old Linn Karik. I worry though that I still prefer vinyl on a Linn Sondek LP12 & play records just about every day.

ManixZero .... any phono amp is better than no phono amp. Buy a few hifi magazines (you remember those!!) and then spend some more time and cash on Ebay. There's lots of great second hand gear about. If you find some loon bidding too much against you on a Linn Kairn pre-amp, it's probably me.

Andrew

Not very creative, but an attempt to reproduce what the photographer might have thought he saw ..........




* PSE8/ACR 6.2 used to process DNG and blend 3 exposures -1,0,+1 (sort of mini-HDR)
* PT lens used to correct verticals a bit
* Clone out dust spot and a bit of telephone wire
* Cropped
* Brightness upped by +25 and contrast by +20
* High pass & USM (80,0.3) sharpening

Andrew

I'll second that, mine spent most of August on my K200D whilst away on holiday.

Andrew

I have a Transcend 8GB Class 10 card that I bought for use with my K200D. Initially, I could only take a few shots and then got an error message saying that the camera could not write to the card.

I tried the Transcend in a card reader on a (newish) HP Pavillion PC with no problem writing or reading, after more than half filling the card with JPEGS. The issue, it seemed, was with the K200D rather than the card.

So ..... I installed the Version 1.01 firmware update on the camera .... and the problem disappeared. The new Class 10 Transcend now works fine.

Andrew

First ever - a (very) cheapie Russian 35mm compact (cannot remember the name) nearly 40 years ago. I vaguely remember using Kodachrome 25 and Ilford FP4.

The clincher was a Ricoh KR10 SLR with Rikenon 50mm f2 lens. I also had a Takumar 80-200mm zoom. I still have a Ricoh KR10 Super which is in great condition (I replaced all the seals a few years back) - but haven't used it recently.

The potential to use the K-mount lenses I had was an influencing factor in buying a Pentax K200D a couple of years back. I still use a XR Rikenon 50mm f1.7 regularly on the K200D, but no longer have the Takumar.

Andrew

Yes, I have used AVG free in the past. I have used several of the freebies and it was fine for a while. I stopped using AVG (on my previous ATHLON 2800+ XP based computer) because it started scanning during the boot process. I couldn't find a way to stop it and a boot took a few minutes!!

When I bought a new PC after being burgled, it came with Norton Internet Security readily installed. When the free 3 months expired, I spent a while scouring the web for reviews on AV software. Microsoft Security Essentials was well regarded in every review I discovered (even in comparison with commercial pacakges).

See for example: http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/software/utilities/anti-malware-software...

or
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-anti-virus-software.htm

It installed easily on my Intel i5, Windows 7 box. It's free. It seems to work fine. It doesn't affect computer performance. It updates itself regularly - but unlike all the other freebies, doesn't ever pester you to upgrade to some commercial version. It's a no-brainer really. As far as I am concerned, I can think of no good reason for using anything else.

Andrew

You could try the free and seemingly very good Microsoft Security Essentials. It works for me.


Andrew