Just to be clear, Pete, I think you're improving fast. IMO this last lot is way better than your earlier offerings.

It was the just the B&W ones that looked a bit random. For B&W to work, there has to be enough of interest about the lighting, contrast, and of course the subject, to make up for the fact that there's no colour.

I've never shot in B&W though, so although I know what I like, I have no idea how actually to produce it!

Keep at it

Definitely.

You can tell he's getting better, he says "images" instead of "photos" or "pictures"...

Edit: edited my post above to remove the word "image".

Strongly agree.

Just one thing. I don't think any of the mono shots benefit at all from having the colour removed.

The effect they have on me is along the lines of...

"... ah yes, the standard and rather predictable 'let's have a couple of B&W shots in here' "

...except that they don't have the fantastic contrast, sharpness, etc, that makes it impossible to take your eye off it. They're rather flat. Compositionally quite appealing, but without any of the impact that you'd want to see with a truly awesome B&W photograph.

If I was improving as fast as you are, Pete, with the colour ones, I'd be inclined to stick with them until the monochrome ones are a bit more memorable.

Although if getting roasted here for putting up your earlier stuff is part of the incentive for the improvement visible in the selection you've posted in this thread, I'd publish and be damned...

Edit: following Mannesty's comment, I just noticed the red bit in the boat pic. Sorry, but my reaction was

That technique needs to be much bolder, and much less random, to make it worthwhile, IMHO.

Edit 2: What lens did you use for the one of the bee?

I bought a multimeter from Argos yesterday, and used it to measure the trigger voltages of my two, and my Dad's two flashguns.

Mine are an old Jessop 270 TBZ (bounce, zoom, GN27), which I've had for approaching 20 years, and a Braun 320 BVC (bounce, swivel, GN32), which is probably even older since I bought it second hand not long after the Jessop one.

My Dad's ones are a big monster Cobra (twin head, GN 55) and a Braun 260 BC (auto, no bounce).

My two and the Cobra were all under 10V.

But the littlest one, the Braun 260 BC had a trigger voltage of, wait for it...

... 210 Volts !!!!

I guess it pays to measure.

It would probably mean I'd end up having no choice but to buy a truckload more kit, but I'd be up for it, subject to price and distance.

Nice idea.

Isn't there an issue with trigger voltages on the older guns with the newer DSLRs?

This was my experience too, in the tests I ran with A lenses in A and non-A mode.

I might add, this is not a terribly subtle discrepancy that needs terribly careful experiments.

It takes about one minute to demonstrate that the effect is real and large.

The rest of the time is spent convincing the sceptics

(Yeah I know, scepticism is an important part of science..

Ok, herewith the new improved version 2.

Method as above, except that:

- I used a big piece of white card instead of a wall
- I positioned the camera at a distance where the card easily filled the viewfinder at all focal lengths, and took a shot at 28 mm to ensure that it also filled the frame.
- Set, and checked ISO at 400 in Manual, Program and Av
- I used the plastic viewfinder cover. I had been using my hand last night, but the way I cover it is with the base or my palm and heel of my hand wrapping over the whole VF, right up in contact. I'd previously measured there to be no difference between that technique and the plastic insert - but to keep John happy, I used the latter just now.

Lenses. All Pentax except the Sigma, as follows:

28-200 mm SMC-FA F3.8-5.6
50 mm SMC-A F1.7
135 mm SMC-M F3.5
200 mm SMC-M F4
Sigma 600 mm F8 Mirror lens

Results:
---------------------<---M/S---->-----------<---Spot---->
Focal length........ A...............M..............A...............M....

28 mm................1/180.........1/60..........1/180........1/90
200 mm (FA).......1/180.........1/60**.......1/180........1/60**
50 mm................1/250*.......1/60..........1/250*......1/90
135 mm...............................1/90...........................1/90
200 mm (M).........................1/90...........................1/90
600 mm............(Av)1/90......1/90..........(Av)1/90....1/90

* Half a stop different from the 1/180 results - required F9.5 for 1/180s
** Aperture set using the "long end" barrel marking, ie corrected for focal length

So pretty much the same trend as last night:

• 
  - Stop down (and wide open) metering for the fixed aperture lens compares with stop down metering for all the other lenses
  
  - No more than a half stop difference between all the lenses in a given mode.
  

To be honest, I didn't check. I still can't get used to the camera remembering the ISO setting in each mode independently.

However, I haven't changed any settings, and looking at it now, it's set to 400 ISO for all modes, except Sv which I didn't use.

It's an important possible loophole, though, and I'll now definitely run through the tests again tomorrow to check.

There's another mark next to the central one, one stop further round. I assume that's what it's for. So presumably F8 is really F11 at the long end, etc.

I have a couple of M-series primes which I'll add to the results table.

Herewith a report.

Purpose

To compare the K10D metering using a fixed aperture lens with other lenses at the same aperture, both in A mode and non-A mode.

Method

A plain, naturally lit interior wall was used as subject. It had a matt surface, emulsion painted (once white, now not quite white). A tripod was positioned conveniently at a distance of about 3 feet from the wall. It remained in the same position throughout. All metering was done with the viewfinder covered. Care was taken to ensure that no shadows were cast on the wall by either the camera, the tripod or the experimenter.

3 lenses were used:

Sigma 600mm F8 (fixed) mirror lens
Pentax SMC-A 50 mm F1.7
Pentax SMC-FA 28-200 F3.8 - 5.6

The metered shutter speed was then recorded in the following situations:

For the 600mm Sigma, with the camera in Aperture priority and manual (stop down) modes.

For the others, with the lens in A mode (set in the camera) at F8, and also in manual (stop down) mode, also at F8 using the aperture ring. When the lens was in A, the camera was in Program mode, with F8 selected (it had already been established that there was no difference between lens-A metering in Program or Aperture Priority).

When the lens was in non-A, the camera was in manual. All stop-down metering was done with the green button.


Results.

600 mm.......1/10 (Aperture priority and manual)
50 mm.........1/30 (A) 1/8 (manual)
28 mm.........1/30 (A) 1/10 (manual)
200 mm ......1/30 (A) 1/4 (manual)

These measurements were all repeated several times (cycling through the lenses), to ensure that the light levels were remaining constant.

Conclusion...

I am not capable of drawing any firm conclusions from this. It's interesting to note the much slower speed of the 28-200 at the long end when in manual mode - maybe that's because of the aperture difference over the focal length range: is F8 set really F11 at the long end in manual, but the camera is clever enough to compensate when it's in A??

However, it does appear that non-A mode metering is quite consistent across the lenses (apart from, as I say, the long end of the 28-200), and that it is different from A-mode metering.

I might try again tomorrow with a brighter wall and a couple of other lenses as well. Hope someone can make a bit more sense of these results than I can.