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Er... well.... guess I've been found out now! That were me that were!

Thought I was cheekily putting in a bid of £400 and would have to wait a couple of days to be turned down lightly, but it was accepted instantly.

Seeing as though the one I mentioned was 3 times the price, was just trying to work out if I got a bargain, or the other one was grossly overpriced.

Judging by the comments, looks like I did OK! Once I figure out how to use it, I promise to let you know what it's like!

PS Same seller has a M 400mm f5.6 @ £200 or Best Offer, judging by my experience, might just be worth putting in a silly bid for someone!

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It's actually not a bad price for a lens of that length, quality and condition. The Sigma 500m 1:4.5 is £2,800 in the shops.

It has a manual diaphragm, but in practice that's not much of a problem because one would probably choose to shoot wide-open most of the time.

Being MF it's not great for moving birds, but otherwise there's nothing wrong with it.

G

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Found this one:-

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PENTAX-PK-SMC-500mm-4-5-Case-MINT_W0QQitemZ350071909221QQcmdZViewItem?_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116


Me thinks this one is a smidgen overpriced, so realistically, what do you think it's worth?

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but to a keen legal mind
G

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It depends what you use it for.... (as ever).

For pure photography, Photoshop Elements is hard to beat. I find the Adobe way of handling filters and layers much faster than any other package. However, I have nothing against Gimp, Paint Shop Pro, or anything else that gets the job done.

However, Photoshop CS2 is invaluable to me for the following reasons:
* Pen tool with clipping paths (can't live without this one)
* Decent colour management engine for soft-proofing and conversion
* 16-bit image support
* Layers (I know there are plugins with PSE). CS2 has layer groups too. Essential for the way I work (with at least a dozen layers at a time)
* Actions (ie macros). I use several third party actions in my workflow, and that saves a lot of time.
* Integration with Illustrator

I could add this list of items that I know are in many other packages, but are still essential:
* Curves
* Blend modes (especially for luminosity & hue)
* Keyboard links to tools (I work with a Wacom + keyboard simultaneously)
* Industry standard plugins (though most other tools can support them too).

As I mentioned, it's the speed of filter & layer previews that I haven't found elsewhere. Most packages seem to apply the filter to the whole image as you adjust. It looks like Photoshop only does this to the current view, in the current zoom setting - so it's almost instant.

Although I have nothing against other packages, it'd be a tough thing for me to switch! Photoshop CS2 is second nature to me - I hardly have to think about it.

If more were closer to here it might be interesting to do a Photoshop tutorial session... but I'd need some funding and time!
Matt

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Hi Guys,

Thanks for all your input.

I've had a good look around Zenfolio, Photium and Flickr, I actually like them all but I've discounted Photium on the grounds of cost and storage limit.

I like Flickr's Pro options, unlimited storage plus the ability to upload PEF/DNG archives, nice to know there is another backup should disaster strike. Zenfolio's unlimited option looks good, I like how I can use my own domain name but will have to see how /if that causes conflict with my personal website.

Not in a hurry yet as I've recently renewed my Pbase account although I'm a bit uneasy as to how long Pbase will be around, they are not gaining many friends/new users due to their silence on the performance issues.

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Apparently this is the book to have for the K10D so was wondering if anyone out there that has moved on to the K20D has one sittng around doing nothing?

thanks.

Mike

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Well I reckon that it is something that Clarky should have