None required. I don't at all subscribe to the slightly sniffy view sometimes expressed, deprecating so-called clichéd shots purely because they're clichés.

I sometimes don't like pictures because I've seen them a hundred times before, but that doesn't stop me taking plenty of clichés myself, and it shouldn't stop people feeling perfectly Ok about replicating scenes or styles that have been done before, as part of the journey towards originality.

Or, of course, just 'cos they're nice to look at.

As Alien says, I think the Westminster Tube shot is the best, and the others suffer a bit from converging verticals and/or slight composition-fail, especially the one with the phone box.

I'd have liked the first one more without the ghost-boat, which is a bit distracting.

But heck, as you said - why not.

The Harriers, for me.

RIP, with grateful thanks.

Hear hear. Fingers crossed for release from behind those bars.

The reality is that you won't get much for any of these here. You'd probably get more on eBay, since there are many more less well-informed buyers there.

The trouble with all of these is that they each have an achilles heel for different reasons.

The 135-M is terrific in every respect except that it's pre-A, so it isn't as usable (purely because of the exposure problems, nothing wrong with the optics) on the K10D and subsequent dSLRs.

The 50mm A F2 is also terrific except that it's not the F1.7. For most practical purposes there's little difference, but even so.

And if you're talking about the 28-80 A-series Tak that also came Pentax-(non-SMC)-branded, well, there's nothing wrong with it particularly (it's not good, nor desperate, as manual zooms from that era went), but there are any number of later, better, not-very-expensive AF lenses that cover much the same focal length range.

If you put them out for sale here, you have the problem that a lot of people here know all this - a lot better than I do, mostly - and on eBay they're not at all uncommon.

Dunno. Thirty or forty quid each maybe. A bit more for the 135 perhaps, if you can find someone interested only in the optics and not the usability. The 50mm F2 varies wildly, but it has to be really excellent condition, effectively mint, to do well.

Less for the 28-80 probably - it's not that desirable now, really.

Yes indeed. And compressing. I guess it's the price you pay for the higher compression ratio. Agree that storing is much better than compressing for JPEGs whichever compression tool you use.

As I say though, 7z is free, WinRar isn't.

Physically posting a couple of DVDs may well be the simplest solution to this, but you might consider the following:

Ordinarily, I much prefer the 7z format since it often gets you a much higher compression than zip.

Not that 7z's higher compression makes much difference with JPEG files, since they're already compressed nearly to the max, but the 7-zip application (which is free) is very easy to use, and also lets you split large 7z files into an arbitrary number of smaller ones. WinRar, as someone mentioned, is not free, although it does much the same sort of things.

Then for transfer, you might consider Dropbox.

You only get 2GB free, but you can pay for more, refer lots of friends (which gets you extra storage*) or just do it in several stages.

The upload will take a while, though, as has been said.

_______
* in fact, if anyone doesn't mind PMing me their email address, I'll 'invite' them to sign up with DropBox via my account. For each one, both the referrer (me!) and the referee gets an extra 250MB of free space.

I wonder if he meant at Windsor.
It's being rationalised, hopefully prior to acquisition of new stock.

I've had something of a realisation, namely that (speaking only of single malts, I hasten to add) I've never had an Irish whiskey I really like, and equally, never a Scottish whisky that I don't like.

So I've been working hard at consuming the Irish ones as quickly as possible, to make some cabinet space for some nice Scotches.

It's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it.

No.

Do what she asks. She won't thank you for getting her a K-5, and repeatedly grabbing it from her when she shows signs of wanting to use it as a P&S.

Buy her a moderately expensive compact (not a cheap P&S), and me a K-5.

Merry Christmas to you too!

Did you not mean 'trawling'? As in, let the net out, and see what it catches?

Yes, we drive cars, empty dishwashers, operate electical equipment of various kinds. We drill, saw, press buttons on remotes, carve cooked chickens...

... but clean a sensor... whoa Dobbin. Scary stuff.

Very much so. Though paradoxically I'd be very pleased to have taken (and PPd) any of those.

Funny how your perspective shifts as you move from creator to critic.

George, as one who's just passed his 3000th, I'm delighted to see you're building up a fair head of steam for your 7000th post in these parts.

There's nothing like preparation.

I have so much to learn, I know...