This did actually make me laugh out loud.

You're welcome Martin, it's a nice pic, and I'm a cat person, with two myself (one black, one black and white). Nice cat photos generally appeal to me.

I've got this book, which I like because of the way the cat's energy and character have been perfectly captured. Worth a look next time you're in a bookshop.

Dan

The lower jaw of the cat is out of focus, it's not movement blur. If Martin had stopped the lens down then depth of field would have been increased and there would have been more detail here, but then the shutter speed would have been longer, and detail in the background would have been more visible, which may have detracted from the shot.

If you look at the cat shot, below the fang and just above the tongue is a highlight on a tooth, that's rendered as a circular out of focus blob. If the jaw was blurred due to movement, this blob would have been oblong, rather than a circle.

The focus on the dog is so good at f/2.8 because the nose, eye and ear are all along the focus plane, ie. the same distance from the camera. The depth of field is still shallow (although better than the cat pic due to the greater focus distance), but it's not so noticable as the main features are all sharp.

I especially like the cat pic.

Dan

Just seen this which, under 'metering' states: "Auto bracketing: 3 or 5 exposures in 0.5 or 0.3 EV steps. Additional auto
bracketing for contrast, saturation, colour tone, focus, and white balance."

Does the K-7 have a focus bracketing option? I haven't seen it mentioned before, but I might have just missed it.

Dan

EDIT: Mind you have just seen this from the same website: "The K-7 also incorporates an AF-assisting spotbeam projector in its built-in flash unit to improve autofocusing accuracy in the dark".

Well, I had a quick look at Shim's link, and clicked on one image, and thought "The K-7 looks nicest to me". The K20D and 50D both have quite unpleasant colour noise, and the 50D has nasty jpeg artifacts.

I look back at my Provia 400 shots, and think "thank goodness for digital". Noise compared to grain is just in a different league, and I'm using a K10D. I can't wait to get my hands on a K-7, but just not at the current price.

Dan

If you're using it on a DSLR, you won't see the full fisheye effect as the sensor is smaller than the 35mm frame the lens was designed for.

£50 just for the lens or for the converter as well? Either way, probably a bargain (definitely if it includes the converter! :lol.

Dan

Just a thought, does it do a preflash before each exposure? If so, that might be why it has to scale back the FPS.

But thinking about it, if it's in manual, does it do a preflash at all?

Dan

Even though it doesn't matter, some things make things easier. It was the high ISO performance that swayed him mostly I believe, and that can easily be the difference between a sharp shot and blurred one when you're in the jungle taking photos of gorillas, to which he is rather partial.

And, actually his statement was "Andy believes strongly that it is the photographer and how they use the light that makes a great picture rather than the gear", which isn't the same as saying the gear doesn't matter.

Dan

He uses Nikon DSLRs now, having switched from Canon when the D3 came out.

And yes, he has used Pentax in the past - the 645. I'm pretty sure this was shot with it, with a wide angle lens.

Dan

Well that's exactly the same as posting here.

Dan

Have a great summer Kris, and hopefully we can arrange that London meet up in September/October that you mentioned before.

Dan