The Sigma and Tamron are the same price (give or take a £5) in the UK. I can recommend the Sigma, but haven't used the Tamron.

Dan

I had a 32Mb Graphics card which was fine when using Photoshop Elements 2, but when I changed to Elements 4 everything ground to a halt. Fitting a new card with 256Mb of memory sped things right back up again, so presumably Adobe changed the way the screens were drawn (?) and so a better graphics card was needed.

Discussed here: https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2708

Have since upgraded my computer, so have that graphics card knocking about waiting to be ebayed if anyone's interested...

Dan

There a new lens catalogue on the Pentax UK website (apologies if it's been there for a while but I haven't noticed it before).

http://www.pentax.co.uk/downloads/lenses/uk/DSLR_Lenses_Catalogue_UK.pdf

Dan

I try not to, but it's hard...

I normally just show pity for the Canon users.

Dan

Well today I ran another Macro workshop, and the news was even better. These were the scores today:

Canon: 1
Nikon: 1
Minolta: 3
Pentax: 3

Yes, today there were three Pentax users (K10D, K100D and a DS), three Minoltas (7D and 5D), a Nikon D50 and a Canon 400D.

First time I've seen so few Canons, and it put a big smile on my face all day that there were so many Pentaxes about. Soon, we will rule the World!

Dan

Night Clarky!

Dan (just going to have a late lunch, it's nearly 4.30pm ).

Reminds me of when I got up at 4am to ring my mum to wish her happy birthday, just before she went out for a meal in the evening of the previous day. Ah, dawn hot-air balloon trip over the desert, now that was nice.

The wife's been to Adelaide, Melbourne, Canberra, Tasmania and, I think, Darwin too, but you wouldn't want to ask her for directions, you'd end up in Perth!

Actually, I'd like to do the train trip from Perth to Adelaide(?), although it might just be a couple of days of seeing nothing but red.

Dan

Yeah, I'd heard that. Fair do's, it's certainly a dodgy climb and it is a sacred monument to them, can understand why they don't want people climbing all over it.

The wife had done it before, about 5 years previously, and when we got there she said she wasn't fussed about going up again, but seeing as I'd been planning on proposing up there for a few months, I wasn't going to let her get out of it!

There was a German guy there that day who went up on crutches because he only had one leg. He was quicker than either of us.

Dan

If you look at Uluru, 32nd little ridge from the left, that's where I proposed!

Here's a view of the trip back down! See the tiny coaches.




This was taken some time after, not the best light, and the compact we had didn't cope too well with the sunset the night before.




And here's a view from Govetts Leap, having looked through the snaps, I discovered I was right, it's Govetts Leap brook(?) that turns into the amazing waterfall.




We spent two months over there, flew into Alice Springs, then out to Sydney, stayed in Penrith for a week to go to a friends wedding, then into the mountains for about a week, then coached it up the coast stopping off in a few places, then 10 days on Magnetic Island, then up to Cairns and Kuranda, then flew back to Alice and spent about a week there, including the trip out to King's Canyon, Uluru and the Olgas. Unfortunately neither of us could drive at the time, but we still got about. Saw the Todd River flowing twice, so we're nearly native!

Yes, saw Black Cockatoos at Townsville. Sulphur Crested at a few different places too. Galahs all over the place, especially around Alice. Bearded Water Dragons looked impressive, as did the spiders.

Dan

We stayed here http://www.jembyrinjahlodge.com.au/index.html , don't think they'd been open too long as it was all new, and they didn't have a restaurant then. Fed Rainbow Lorikeets on the balcony, listened to the Currawong (sound really odd, like robot noises or something ), huddled in the corner while the big spider ran about on the fly screen.

We did a walk into the valley (Grand Canyon?) from Evans Lookout, to the south of it and back along onto the evans lookout road. That was down steps (where we saw the Lyre Bird) and then up some others (where we saw the Copperhead). Also did a circular walk to the north of the lodges, to the waterfall you can see to the left from Evans Lookout (bridal veil I think, although that seems to be the name of all the ones like it, or is that Govetts Leap? Know the name but can't place it).

Got some really nice memories from there, would be nice to go back sometime.

Dan