Wasn't complaining about the topic...

Complaining about the weather is a national pastime in Canada...

Hmmm ...something bouncy...

Spring? Not sure when (if?) it's scheduled to arrive here - we got a couple more inches of snow last night - about 3 feet in the yard now - the kids actually have a maze of tunnels in some of the drifts...

Actually, the shade portion is removable, at least for the "mini" version, which is what the K10D user has to use since there isn't a custom model available for it. See the following for details (2.5 inch model does come in black, as well as the illustrated silver...)

http://www.delkin.com/products/popupshades/mini/

I've been thinking about getting one of these as well...

A Pentax SMCP-FA* 80-200mm f/2.8 ED IF just went for $900 on eBay... about 50% less than usual...

Not to me though - I was too busy trying to think of ways to justify the expense to my wife...

Still interested in any comments, though...

I realize that this may be a bit of a loaded question, but is the Pentax SMCP-FA* 80-200mm f/2.8 ED IF that much better than the 3rd party lenses in the same range? I mean, the prices....

Has anyone tried both the Pentax and another 80-200 f2.8 ?

I'd be tempted to print off a few dozen copies of that, hi-light the last line, where it says "Let experienced officers decide what action to take." and hand it out to anyone asking what I was doing....

Since I usually carry a cell phone, I might even offer to call the police for them...

I don't usually think much of what the Popular Photography magazine contains, but I did like to read the monthly offering from a terrific columnist (for many years) named Herbert Keppler who said :
I agree with Herbert, but still... PS (Elements in my case) HAS, on too many occasions, saved for me, what otherwise would have been poor or mediocre photos...

Another thing to keep in mind are "Student" versions of many software licenses are sometimes non-upgradeable - although for the price, it may be cheaper to replace than upgrade anyhow (if you can still get a student price when you want to upgrade...)

Every now and then I look through Henry's to see if anything's on sale (maybe I'm masochistic...) and I noticed the DA 18-55 II was $50 cheaper than the original one...

Typo ?

Old : http://www.henrys.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ItemsDisplay?storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&departmentId=10404&categoryId=11802&itemID=145423

New : ]http://www.henrys.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ItemsDisplay?storeId=10001&c...

(Sorry about the wide link - didn't have time for tinyurl)

Cleaning out some old boxes, I found a box with a bunch of photography odds and ends - a bunch of Cokin A filters, a dozen or so round filters (all too small for any of my current lenses...not that any would be very useful on digital...), a 50 foot pneumatic shutter release, and a film leader retriever, and a couple flashes from my K1000 days...

I was wondering if anyone could tell me anything about the flashes... I got them 30 years ago from a junk bin in a Toronto camera store for a couple bucks each... They are Soligor 14 S flashes, and I'm guessing the S is for Slave, and that's all I ever used them for - they have a sensor that sets them off when they 'see' another flash... They do have a hotshoe, but I never ever used them that way, and probably shouldn't on my K10D...

I used to shoot a lot of photos of groups of people back then, not paid portraits or anything, mostly yearbook style shots... I'd position the group about 8 or 10 feet from a neutral coloured wall, lay the 14S on the floor behind the group facing straight up, and it would both light the background (hiding any shadows my on-camera flash created) and provide a bit of a backlit effect, that sometimes looked good, and at worst wasn't strong enough to detract from the picture.

Does anyone have any info - GN rating is what I'm looking for... I'll find my multimeter and check the voltage...