Hi James, thanks for your thoughts, what makes a stand heavy duty vs lightweight for you ? Is it the max weight it can support, or the construction, or other factors ?

The viewfinderphotography site is a bit thin on details wrt lighting stands, makes it tricky to compare, do you like their kit particularly ?

cheers

Hi Anvh, thanks for your thoughts, looks like the LumoPro are US made and imported to NL, I have not found a UK stockist so far (yes I'm in the UK !).

presently an old thyristor flash I have with 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 power options, or the K10's onboard with a diffuser, will have to do until I get the hang of it all and can justify sparing some cash.

not looked for westcott yet, but what made you go for a 60inch umbrella, that's huge!?? Seems a bit big for indoors for small UK houses at least. Thanks for the tip about softboxes fitting on umbrella stands.

cheers

forgot to add, think I might need one of these too :
http://www.warehouseexpress.com/buy-lastolite-tilthead-with-hotshoe/p1030275

Hi folks
thinking a bit about getting a simple umbrella and stand to do a bit of flash photography - subject = baby (prob sleeping), location - in the home, so nothing too big methinks

I am initially thinking of using an AF540FGZ on a stand and potentially could also use old thyristor flash, no budget for a 2nd new flash I'm not thinking of studio always on type lighting, just trying to get a nicely diffused more natural look.


just started looking around but at first sight something like this seems suitable

http://www.warehouseexpress.com/buy-interfit-85cm-translucent-umbrella-with-silv...

or http://www.warehouseexpress.com/buy-interfit-109cm-translucent-umbrella-with-sil...

http://www.warehouseexpress.com/buy-lastolite-80cm-dual-duty-silver-black-white-...

http://www.warehouseexpress.com/buy-lastolite-100cm-dual-duty-umbrella-white-sil...

a kit ?
http://www.warehouseexpress.com/buy-lastolite-100cm-all-in-one-umbrella-kit/p102...

but umbrella + this stand seems cheaper :
http://www.warehouseexpress.com/buy-giottos-lc210-1-light-stand/p1025901
air-cushion sounds appealing considering the cost of flashguns now, the min height might be bit high ?

I can get my hands on a music stand, wonder if this might be adapted, probably weighted at the base for stability ?

I would welcome your thoughts and advice on pitfalls / anything better value. I'm pretty much a novice at flash photography and with not much cash to spare I don't want to waste it.

thanks

Mobo drivers, HDD drivers etc can all be downloaded for free from the mfrs websites, just identify what you've got and let your fingers do the walking as we used to say.

Unless your mobo is really old then it should cope with SATA if it already has the connectors physically on it. My PC has XP and happily uses SATA drives. I've got XP on 1 HDD, and two other much larger drives as a mirrored raid array which suits me. IIRC there are some issues about the order of setting up raid arrays and installing XP, worth checking before getting your hands dirty, not a problem with some nvidia stuff though IIRC.

heh heh, hence the term 'reasonable' in law methinks.

Hmmm, the reason I started checking the lens was that I was getting much better results from a cheaper lens. Hopefully I can make a bit of time free soon and post a few pics up to illustrate.

I started doing these tests because I was comparing 50mm on a cheaper lens with 50mm on the more expensive one and was getting much sharper results with the cheaper lens against a distant subject - having already checked both vs a focus test chart !

Well, having now finished digesting the test shots, I see two blocks of data out of four had been transposed in my brain, so my thoughts were wrong, I'm getting only about 10-20 um difference between long and short ends of the lens which is fine. Sorry for the false start.

However I tested thus:
min zoom @~1.3metres : needs +070um
max zoom @~1.3metres : needs +070um
min zoom @~3.0metres : needs +170um
max zoom @~3.0metres : needs +170um

all were tripod mounted, SR OFF, process for each shot was to move focus ring to min focus, then use AF button until focus locked and the use 3s remote to fire the shutter (with the AF with remote option off). The difference in focus adjustment required at 1.3m and 3.0m is about 100um on K10, which still doesn't seem good good.

To me this just doesn't seem right. Fair to say I've not tested in detail at two different distances before so it may be more common effect than I realise. It means that depending how close I am to the subject I'm going to get problems.

50mm @1.3m gives +/-4cm DoF
100mm @1.3m gives +/- 1cm DoF
50mm @3m gives +/-20cm DoF
100mm @3m gives +/-5cm DoF

If I adjust for 1.3m then the difference in DoF at 3m will go some way towards helping, so I should adjust for close range and let the DoF 'hide' the problem I guess, but.... it's not a cheap lens either and covers my (non banking) bonus money

Anyone had any similar experiences ?

Hi folks, anyone had a zoom lens which needs a significantly different BF/FF focus adjustment at the long and short ends ?

I'm testing one I bought recently which I'm starting to think I'm going to have to exercise the warranty because of this, subject to a few more checks I think I'm getting about 100um difference (on K10) over the zoom range.

Sound like fair grounds for a lens return to you ?

I remember seeing some houses with bedroom walls made of glass which becomes opaque or competely dark at the flick of a switch (or is it the other way round wrt power supply ?).

If mirrors could be replaced by an electro-active mirror is a similar way that could be a big plus imho - very quiet, reduced lag (not that it's high now), reduced torque so lighter tripods might be more usable etc.

To me the EVF option is not good in low light as the scene you are trying to take becomes much brighter through the viewfinder and then when you take your eye away again you have to wait for it to become accustomed to the dim ambient light.

personally I prefer current reflex option to EVF.

My pet hate is "I would of" rather than "I would've" or "I would have". You don't say "I of been ..." do you ? Or is that 'One doesn't say ...'

Agreed, there is some very good stuff done, my main point of bemusement is how some pics I have seen credited to major picture agencies are deemed good enough - I think I have deleted some they would have been happy to use (and pay for) apparently.