thats what i have done for now, just planning ahead on the b&w front, thanks foe advice

thanks Gartmore. as above 7dayshop seem good for ilford film, and i noticed they do pre-paid envelopes with freepost for sending off films to ilford for £8.99 which is £2 cheaper than going to ilford direct and you would have to pay postage too on that. I spoke to Ilford and they recommended for a good all-rounder b&w film their FP4 125 film which 7day shop have pretty cheap.

thanks Brian. I wonder what you think on this additional point. The focus are on this camera is a little gold square and it is very faded. I can just about make out when things are lined up in the box but it does not agree precisely with the distance on the focus ring. So I get it in focus and reckon I am 5 ft away but the focus ring is about 6ft. My question is what is best to trust? I am going to do some tests with a tape measure on this test roll of film but wondered about your experiences.

I'd be a bit concerned about using someone like bonusprint, especially for black and white as I'm assuming they process black and white in a colour process. In the good old days there used to be shops who could process pure black and white but no more near me anyway.

I've dug out my dad's old camera above. Complete with cute little fan flash and some spare bulbs. At the moment I've just stuck the cheapest of the cheap roll of film in to run through and process it to make sure the camera actually works. I love the colours of the slides he took on this camera when we were kids 40 years ago. I'd like to try and replicate a little that retro feel in colour or go for black and white. I'll just use the camera for the occasional picture.

Does anyone have any recommendations for colour or black and white film, and for where to send them for development?

i'm with MattMatic. original poster seems to have gone awol here but to advise we'd need to know what you are trying to do, and what your budget is.

I am very glad I got the 1.4 50mm auto from SRS when I got my K10D. It is a fantastic lens for indoor flash free portraits. I've also used it in concerts. I try to avoid post processing to remove noise so stick with ISO 800 and see if I can get away with f2.4/2.8 and shutter speed of 1/45 slowest and usually am ok. I also have done some really nice continuous shots with continuous re-focus switched on of my kids running towards me. They are toddlers so don't run fast, every one of the shots had the child in sharp focus. Any other lens I have would not manage to re-focus in between quick enough.

If you're on a tight budget keep a watch on ebay for old manual 50mm primes. Even the f2 one is nice but I hear the f1.7 is better. After a few weeks waiting for the right one for my sis-in-law on her Samsung GX-10 got her a 50mm f2 for about £12, a real bargain.

hi and welcome, where in North Yorkshire are you?

If you have the money it's worth the stretch. The Tamron is very good for the money and I have enjoyed mine. Now I am selling it and the Pentax 50-200mm to make way for the Pentax 55-300mm. I want one lens not too, and the better image quality. I've done some of my own tests and the stark contrast of blacks and whites show up the differences especially. My test was a black gutter against a white wall. The 55-300mm had no purple fringing at all and the Tamron had some.

That said the Tamron is half the price and for that money you get a great lens.

it may be too late but if i were you i would not put it on ebay now. in my experience listing items Sunday evening for 7 days go better as more people are online at that time making last minute bids. And this is is a product people will want out there, in spite of a lack of interest here on the forum. I would list at 99p, its free anyway and lots more people will watch the item and get caught up in the bidding. I've done very well this way selling surprising things.

in addition to the comments replying to my similar question in the link Dan has put above:

I have not expanded canvas yet but will be next time I want a panorama from snapfish. It's not difficult to do. However, I have used DS Colour Labs and their software you download to your PC to manage photo uploads does let you do what you want. I have printed several panoramas this way. You put the photo inside a larger print like say a 12x8 for example to print a 12x5 panorama. I was very happy with the results. The link below shows a panorama I printed from them which came out perfect and is now framed on my neices wall.

link to Wedding Panorama