Dell's customer service is usually pretty good, although the kit is a bit pricey. I have an Asus N56VZ with 1tb hard drive, superb full HD screen, Intel Core i7 processor and a dedicated NVidia GT650M graphics card. I don't know if this model is still produced, but it has been superb for me, very fast handles everything I throw at it with ease. It has 8gb RAM, but can take 16gb if required. As a bonus it has Bang and Olufsen speakers built in and is the best sounding laptop I've ever used.

It cost me £800 just over a year ago and I am glad I spent this sort of money given the performance it gives me. I've used a lot of laptops in my time and this is the best by miles.

Regards
David

Don't buy anything other than the HD Pentax DA AF 1.4, it is utterly brilliant.

Regards
David

These are superb Drew, both the compositions and the excellent processing that has enhanced the mood no end. The first shot is an absolute classic.

Regards
David

Number 3 is great, very creative and I think the colour palette and the amount of blur is judged just right. Number 4 is expertly taken and quite dramatic, although it is probably means more to you personally than it ever would to anyone viewing it simply as a photo. However, you have saved the best image until last; number 5 is truly stunning and is a picture that any of us would be proud to call our own. If I ever get one like this in my lifetime I will be very happy indeed.

Regards
David

I would say 'no', I don't generally use a grip anyway, but also a lot of the time my DA*300 is used on a monopod or a tripod.

Regards
David

I have the Hitech ND grads, 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 and I don't get colour casts like this. It may be to do with the WB settings, but 'm not sure. In actual fact I quite like it and prefer the colours on the second image to those on the first, which look a bit cold to my eye.

Regards
David

Best combination of value for money, quality and sturdiness has been mentioned many times on here before and that is a Redsnapper with either a standard pan and tilt head or a ball head. Mine has had rough use and has come through unscathed apart from some scratches to the paint finish. I would go for the 3 section leg version, which I think is the RS-283.

I think many others on here have this tripod and would highly recommend it.

Regards
David

I have had K-3 for 12 months and a K-5iis for nearly 2 years, I like and use them both. I've taken lots of photos with both of them, many on the same shoot, so I think I am fairly well placed to make observations on this. For me, the post by Jules makes the most common sense of any in this thread. Any observations will of course be subjective, as I am not a scientist and have not made and scientific tests, but for what it's worth, here goes:

- The K-3 is clearly a better all round camera than the K-5iis

- The K-3 has better AF than the K-5iis, I'm not sure it is much faster, but it is a lot less prone to hunting with certain lenses and is more consistently accurate. I notice this most when using the DA*300, particularly with the 1.4 TC attached. This combination hunts a lot with the K-5iis when photographing small subjects (like birds), but with the K-3 on the same subjects there is hardly any hunting

- The K-3 has better metering and white balance

- The 'noise' issue is a complete non-issue for me, yes there is marginally more noise, but as Jules says it is a different kind of noise to that on the K-5iis and is less intrusive and easier to manage. If you don't shoot above ISO 3200 you can discount this as not being worth worrying about

- The K-3 works brilliantly with P-TTL flash, the K-5iis doesn't

- The K-3 has focus peaking, the K-5iis doesn't

- The K-3 allows more latitude for cropping

- It has been said that the K-3 has less dynamic range than the K-5iis and that it is hard to retrieve shadow details. I haven't found this to be an issue and I routinely under-expose by between 1/3 of a stop and 1 stop

- The K-3 has dual card slots - very useful

- The rear screen on the K-3 is better

- The ergonomics of the K-3 are better once you get used to them, particularly the position of the rear AF button

- The images produced by the K-3 are warmer, this is something I like, although it's not a big factor as it's easy to change WB etc. in post processing

Anyone reading this might think that the K-5iis is a poor camera, but this couldn't be further from the truth. Both the K-5iis and the K-3 are superb cameras and all the points made above are marginal improvements from K-5iis to K-3, there is not a massive leap, except for the higher resolution.

Regards
David

That's an excellent shot, if a little abstract. It's not easy to tell what the subject is, but I suspect that is intentional. The photographer and the camera have done a vey good job here.

Regards
David

I am going against the flow with this one and say I like the colour second version the best, but it does need a hefty crop at the bottom to remove the dead space. The first version does not look natural to me as there is not enough shadow definition, probably the result of the HDR treatment.

Regardless, both versions are excellent shots.

Regards
David