Thanks Smeggy, much appreciated, thanks also to everyone else that has commented on these pics.

Regards
David

All fabulous, I'm especially jealous of that Merlin shot.

Regards
David

Thanks for pointing this out John, as some members will know (via PM's, not aired in public) I had chosen not to make any more contributions to the 'K-5IIs' topics because I was becoming quite fed up with the responses from some members where it was on the point of becoming quite personal. I think the way I reacted is mirrored by a lot of people who avoid making contributions to Forum Topics for similar reasons.

This is a shame as we sometimes don't get to hear a balanced view from enough of the Forum Members. I know this is a bit off-topic, but please don't remove it because I think it's relevant. Congratulations once more to McGregNi who has taken an interesting and more scientific approach, without once ever veering into unpleasantness or anything remotely personal.

Regards
David

Hi Lennybloke, thanks for the comments, much appreciated. You've already seen that I use Hitech ND Grads, as for the processing it's pretty standard stuff as I don't have the skills and finesse that some do. In simple terms I do the following:

- Open via Adobe Bridge into Adobe Camera RAW, adjust Exposure, Recovery, Fill Light, occasionally up the Contrast a bit, occasionally Sharpen a tad (usually don't bother at this stage) and up the Clarity to about +20 to +40, depending on the image.

- Open in Photoshop CS3, adjust levels, apply selective Dodge & Burn, re-adjust levels as required
- Adjust Saturation, usually taking yellows down by at least -20 to get rid of over-saturated greens in grass (one of my pet hates is artificial looking green)
- Adjust the Cyans / Blues, especially in the sky as the Hitech Filters add a subtle Cyan / Blue tinge that I would prefer to get rid of
- Check Magenta levels and reduce if necessary (usually not required)
- Flatten image, re-check levels, then sharpen moderately using Unsharp Mask via a duplicate layer with the layer setting on 'Luminosity' to avoid introducing undue noise
- Finally reduce image size to 1000px on the longest side before uploading to the PU Gallery or the Forum; reduction is with the standard 'bicubic' (I used to use 'bicubic sharper' but found that images shot with the K-5IIs could end up looking a bit too sharp when this method is applied, so I have reverted back to the standard setting)

That is a typical process, pretty much what was used on these images. I do sometimes spend a bit more time playing with blended exposures or by blending different layers to enhance various aspects of the image, but none of that has been done here. All of these are single exposure, most have a pretty big dynamic range which has required a fair amount of tweaking to ensure skies are not blown and details are visible in the landscapes. I always make avoiding blown skies my biggest priority when shooting landscapes as this can't effectively be recovered.

Hope this is useful, sorry it's a bit long!

Regards
David

Great quote, but what about your legs? Does your Mondeo TDCI drive up to Lakes and to the top of mountains?

Cheers
David

Can you provide us with some further updates on this Alan when you have more experience with the 10 stopper? I am really interested in your thoughts on this filter. I have the Hitech 10 stopper, but find it fiddly to use and would much prefer a screw-in version. I'm particularly interested in whether it will produce a full colour image with accurate colours across the colour spectrum, after WB adjustment of course, but without too much post processing effort.

Regards
David

Common sense appears to be spoken at last, very well put John:

John is right, there has probably been more time and effort expended on these threads by people trying to justify their 'non-purchase' than there has by those who have purchased. In my case at least, as I mentioned a day or so ago, there's nothing for me to justify as my K-5IIs cost me a significant amount less than a standard K-5II would have done, purely because I happened upon a set of circumstances that enabled me to buy cheaply. Most people are not in that position, but I think it's worth stating so that everyone understands.

I think things are constantly read into the written word that were not intended by the writer. All I have ever tried to do is give my opinion based on actual usage and I've posted a fair few images to assist with this process. I do not regret buying the IIs in the slightest and I would buy another one tomorrow if I had need of an additional camera.

My honest opinion (which is all I ever give) is that comments like this are really unhelpful and serve only to annoy. I know this was probably aimed at me, but it is at best insensitive to other K-5IIs owners who have contributed to the various threads and at worst it is insulting to our motives and intelligence. This is why I chose not to contribute further in recent days to these threads as I felt that it was pointless trying to be helpful only to get responses like the one above back.

I've put some more K-5IIs images on another thread in the 'Your Photos' Forum section if anyone is interested to have a look; these are not designed to make any comparisons with any other camera, I just put them on there for CC and I thank those sincerely who have taken the time and trouble to comment.

Regarding K-5IIs vs Canon 6D, I don't have any idea on this one, but my guess would be that the 6D produces more detailed and lower noise images. If it doesn't that would be a real shock

Best wishes
David

What I meant was show the pictures on the thread, rather than having links to them, it works much better!

If the lens hasn't sold, there must be a reason for it. Many 16-45's are sold successfully on here - they seem to be popular.

Regards
David

Cheers Steve, I've only just got the lens, bought it from a Forum member and it had never been used by the looks of it. Yesterday was the first time I have used it and my impressions are very favourable - sharpness, colours, contrast and control of distortion are all very good. I think it is much sharper than the 16-45 and a bit sharper than the 17-70 based on first time out with it. Another bonus is that is does not vignette with my 85mm Hitech filters and Cokin A holders, even when used at its widest setting!

Regards
David

I would have been, but bought one off a forum member a few weeks ago. I think you should post some images of the lens, give more details about its condition and whether it is fully complete and also maybe offer some movement on the price?

Regards
David