You could have done all this integration using standard available forum software very simply. They're designed to be modular and adapting an existing database to use them is technically trivial. There's simply no need to re-invent the wheel and take a huge leap back in time.

For those that hate the excessive adverts, get yourself a copy of Firefox plus the Adblock Plus and Adblock Plus: Element Hiding Helper add-ons and you can get rid of the horrible, useless things for good.

What you're doing is ruining a perfectly good, working, active community and bending it to your own ends and needs without even wondering whether we were happy with the standard format we were using. I'd understand it better if you were here posting several times a day, but you haven't, so you clearly haven't seen what a mess this was going to be.

I feel dirty even replying in this thread.

I'll be off over to http://www.pentaxforums.com now then. I'll have to buy a flame-retardant suit and a good pair of ear defenders and forget about posting anymore, but I simply cannot abide this monstrosity (and I really don't much like the other forums at all).

I'll pop back once in a while to see if Pentax User has relented (and seen sense), but otherwise I'm currently pretty sad and very angry that the very place that got me into Pentax photography has been completely ruined by people who are not using it every day.

Bye.
Jonathan (not so chirpy now)

I'm afraid that I cannot agree with that at all. You can perform all those tasks easily with most of the professional off-the-shelf products and I think you have made a great mistake here.

But nevermind. My opinion is clearly worthless, I've only been a server admin for 20 years. This will likely be the last thread I post on here now as it is simply impossibleto navigate, counter-intuitive and a complete departure from the current best of breed in forum software, and as I said, about 10 years out of date.

Feel free to place your hands over your ears and say "La La La" very loudly.

Sorry, but unless they move to a "normal" forum, I'm gone. This is the most horrid mess I've seen.

The simplest and most important task of any forum is:

"View posts since my last visit", sorted by date, thread and forum with an indication whether I've posted or am watching that thread. That's all gone, making this an exercise in futility. How anyone could think that this represented ease of use and a style familiar to just about every other forum out there is beyond me.

It now ranks lower that Depressing Review in ease of use - and that's saying something.

I'd rather have seen the old forum archived and had to sign up to a new vBulletin installation than see this mess.

I'm afraid that I must say, that in all my years using the internet (i.e. since about 1988 ), this has to be the worst looking and most impossible to navigate and follow forum I've ever seen or used now. I'm not sure whether it'll be worth posting here anymore.

The web standard is vBulletin, phpBB and clones and there are plenty of options available (I even wrote one a few years back). Heck, I'd be happy to stump up a vBulletin license if money is the problem. This feels like a 10 year step backwards in time.

Sorry, hate it

Flickr does that. You can get abbreviated EXIF data from the "More properties" link for each photo. Shows Metering Mode: Pattern.

You might also want to look for lenses that have a 1:1 macro focus. This basically means that at the closest focusing distance the size of the image will match that of the object. Otherwise, extension tubes or reversing rings. You could also look at something like the Raynox DCR-250 which some people get excellent results from.

BTW, don't confuse 1:1 with the similar nomenclature of, e.g. 1:2.8 which signifies the minimum f-stop rather than the magnification ratio.

I started off with a 50mm Sigma 1:1 macro lens. Although rather short for a macro lens, it does do the job well if you don't mind getting very close to things.

Hi Howard,

I do like the composition of the first picture of the thrush with a fly in its beak, but it's suffering a bit from a lack of sharpness.

It looks to me that you're taking 200mm photo's at 1/30 of a second. Even if you had shake reduction, that is going to be quite challenging and a tripod is probably going to be a must to get the sharpest possible pictures using those settings.

I'd suggest increasing the ISO value so that you can get the shutter speed as close to the 1/focal length of the lens as possible. This will unfortunately introduce more noise, but it's a balancing act to get the best picture you can. Alternatively, wait for a sunnier day


If you haven't attempted much bird photography in your garden before, and want to spend more time doing so, here are some ideas from what I've tried:

Get them feeding in your garden (which you're clearly already doing).

If you have a garden shed or even a back door that opens onto the garden, you can use either as somewhere to take photos from where you're less likely to frighten off the birds. The aim here is to get as close as possible using a tripod without scaring them off.

If you go out to feed the birds at a particular time, try leaving the shed door or back door open afterwards (weather permitting) for a while.

Let the birds get used to that. Next, try putting a garden chair or similar inside the doorway, set back a way, when you leave the door open. Next put your tripod in the doorway too. Let them get used to that too.

Lastly, sit in the chair with camera setup on a tripod to help with support. Try pre-focusing on or near the feeders so that the whir of the autofocus (if you use it) doesn't scare them off.

Wait for them to turn up and then shoot away.

A lot depends on how tame the birds are. Last summer I got to the stage where they were happy for me to sit on a bench in our garden just a couple of meters away from the feeders so long as I was very very still and just took the photos.

BTW, you're lucky indeed to be getting what looks like a Great Spotted Woodpecker in your garden

Would that be: http://www.pentax-manuals.com/

Wow, that's some seriously long (and heavy) glass. How the the prices compare to when they were new?