Uncrippling the mount just doesn't seem to be enough of a priority, given all the other things they could be working on. I got rid of all my M lenses ages ago, and I much prefer the dual e-dial method of changing settings.

Stop-down metering is good enough now, on the K-5, and hopefully on its successors, so in the event I needed to use a pre-A lens, I think the metering issue has largely gone away.

So much as I'd like the Pentax cameras to be more compatible with old lenses in principle, in reality I can't get too excited about it.

Hmm, I don't have any other ideas then, other than that it will have to work for longer if you're using it to continuously steady the display (analogous to use of Live View on the dSLRs), and make larger corrections if you're using a long focal length. Not surprising that you can hear it working in those circumstances.

All I can say for sure is that the type of light at the time won't have anything to do with it - the SR system has no idea about any of that. It just senses physical movement, and moves the sensor to compensate. It has no idea what the image consists of, nor how well it's exposed.

Noise aside, does it work well?

Did you tell the camera what the focal length was?

Love Marmite. Can't stand Kai.

That would be it then - it's the fact that your newer machine is 64 bit that is at issue, not the fact that it's Windows 7.

Happy to help - and in case I've confused anyone, there was a typo in my earlier post: it's Nikon Scan 4.0.3, not 1.0.3.

For reference, the link describing the hack I mentioned is here.

It's a long rambling discussion, but the most important bit is the first post in that thread.

And if you have a Coolscan IV, John, which is the same as the LS-40, I believe, post number 39 is relevant - don't be put off by the comment that the Coolscan IV and V don't work using this technique.

It looks a lot harder than it is to implement, so don't be put off.

Would I be right in thinking that you have Vista 32 bit installed on your laptop?

NikonScan 1.03 works absolutely fine with Windows 7 32 bit (I use it myself with the Coolscan 5000), but the driver is incompatible with Windows 7 64 bit.

However, there is a very easy, well known hack, that lets the driver work on Windows 7 x64 as well (if anyone wants it I'll dig out the link).

As it happens, I've found with two computers now, that something about the way the scanner talks to the computer results in scan errors if the CPU is overclocked.

I don't want to remove the overclock, so I just use a 32 bit version of Windows 7 running in a virtual machine, and NikonScan 1.03 works flawlessly.

I've tried VueScan too, but I much prefer NikonScan since it makes for a much smoother workflow. With only a few images to scan it wouldn't be important, but it makes a big difference if you have thousands.

So is the FA50 F1.4 discontinued then?

The FA limiteds are shown, but no FA 50 F1.4.

"The first ten thousand photographs were the worst.

The next ten thousand photographs - they were the worst too.

After that I went into a bit of a decline".

(Misquoted from HHGTHG).

Yes, I'm leaning that way too

Unfortunately, I'm having a bit of trouble recreating that look! It was only supposed to be a quick and dirty edit just to see how it might turn out, and I didn't write down what I did.

I so wish you could store the edit history with an image, as well as the image itself.

Many thanks for all the suggestions. Could I now ask which of these two you prefer:

This one (darker, more contrasty)...

Or this one (possibly a bit more natural).

I don't have much experience guessing what the print will be like from the web display, so any experience from others will be much appreciated.

Suggestions gratefully received - there's only one shot with the PhotoBox offer for the 40x30 at as little as a fiver!!