That is a potentially award winning shot. Fantastic.

Regards
David

No Comment

Nigel makes a very good point with regard to the in-body Shake Reduction. I like the older manual focus lenses as the images they produce suits video very well - lovely warmth of colour and soft bokeh.

I rarely use the video on my DSLR, but my son Daniel does and the results he has had from his lowly K-x have been very good indeed.

It's only 720p, but nevertheless it is impressive.

Regards
David

I hope you don't call her 'Miss Smeggy' do you?

Cheers
David

I'm out in all weathers with the K-5's and they take everything that the British weather can throw at them! Almost all my best pics have been shot in what could be described as 'inclement' weather.

Regards
David

We have no secrets; our money is shared and everything is in the open. That way it's impossible to store up problems that could fester and emerge in the future!

It's worked so far, 25th Wedding Anniversary is this November and I have all the Pentax gear I want!

Regards
David

I've mentioned a few times that I rarely use HDR, but when I do it's Photomatix Pro. I ignore the presets completely and go for my own settings, the objective being a 'natural' look and not what most people would call 'HDR'. Quite often the HDR image ends up getting blended back into the 'normal' image - this can give a very pleasing effect that does not look like HDR, but has the extended dynamic range I am looking for.

Regards
David

Ahh, I see! It's interesting that you comment on the 18-135 'filterless'. I've found that some lenses hate filters (especially circular polarisers), whereas others love them! The 55-300 will not hit sharp focus with a circular polariser attached - even when focussing manually it is always soft. Take the filter off - hey presto it's pin-sharp!

Regards
David

Hello Gary, I'm not sure if the Takumar 135mm F3.5 is the same optically as the M version. I would doubt it as there's a good few years between them, but I know someone on here will have the answer. What I do know is that the Tak 135 F3.5 is a very sharp lens that is great wide open and rivals the K135 F2.5 (IMHO) for image quality. Clearly it's not as fast, but I struggle to use the K135 at its widest aperture as the DOF is so narrow it's difficult to nail the focus.

For around £20 to £40 I think the Tak is hard to beat, if you can live with the M42 to K adaptor (mine is fixed permanantly with the spring clip removed) and also with the fact that it's a MF lens.

Best wishes
David

It is really a breeze to remove the colour casts in post processing, even with something like the Hitec 10 stopper. With the ND grads, I use Hitec and have not had any colour cast worth noting.

As Dr. Orloff mentioned, it is much better to get a balanced exposure in the camera than to have to manipulate it in PP to gain the right balance. Images can tend to have a 'forced' look if processed to heavily, especially when trying to recover detail in shadows. The K-5 is excellent in this regard, but still does not compensate adequately and results are much better with the balance of the exposure correct in the camera.

Regards
David