This is most definitely not the case Bill. LED backlit monitors should be capable of brighter and more contrasty images (in general) than those with CCFL backlighting. This depends of course on the quality of the monitor and its backlighting.

With regard to cables Maria, either a DVI or a HDMI is required, depending on the monitor it may only have a DVI connection. It also depends on your PC; not all older PC's have a DVI or HDMI digital output. If yours does, connect it this way, if it doesn't, VGA is your only option but the image quality will not be as good with VGA as it is with either DVI or HDMI. The reason for this is that an analogue VGA signal has to be converted to digital by the monitor in order for it to be displayed on the screen; the conversion process inevitably results in a loss of some image quality. DVI and HDMI are both digital connections, so the data flows unconverted from the PC to the monitor (assuming the PC is set to the same resolution as the monitor, which nowadays will usually be full HD resolution, i.e. 1920 x 1080).

Regards
David

Regards
David

A lovely set Tim, I particularly like the warm, golden light in the third image.

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David

I think you've made a good decision Maria, I don't think a cable would have made any difference.

Regards
David

As long as you have a tripod I don't think a wide aperture is a necessity. The kit lens should do just fine. If you are thinking about a cheap 28mm, try to get a Pentax one. The Pentax-M 28mm F3.5 is brilliant, but rather scarce, if you can't find one of these, there are plenty of 28mm F2.8's around.

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David

Great to hear that Greg, I hope you get many a good shot with it!

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David

No 2 for me is great and they are all nice. BW would destroy these images!

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David

Glorious warm and earthy colours in these images, particularly the render on the Dovecote. They are all expertly taken and attractive, I think the first one is the best as the sky has more definition in this image.

Regards
David

Maria, I work in a company that produces software and we have all manner of monitors. Our developers use twin Phillips 27" monitors that are similar to your monitor and although they are sharp and bright we find them quite poor for the following:

- Contrast is poor; blacks are grey, not black
- Off-axis viewing is a non-starter, as soon as you move to the side the colours and contrast become almost non-existant
- Colour saturation is not very good

I would strongly recommend that you swap the monitor for one that is a bit more capable. An IPS monitor is best for photos. If this is not possible, try reducing the brightness and increasing the contrast. This will not help when viewing from angles other than 'straight on', but may help reduce the effect of a 'film' across your images.

Regards
David

Lovely photos Cliff, it's great to hear you are on the road to recovery.

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David

In the K-5 menu you need to make sure the 'Auto Rotation' menu item is un-ticked rather than ticked. If it is set this way the images will rotate correctly.

Regards
David