I can't agree that the 55-300 is 'a heavy and clumsy beast', far from it! For the reach it provides it is very light, especially the DA L version (which I have) and I don't find it difficult to use at all, especially on the K-5 as it focusses quickly and accurately on this body.

However, I do agree that the 50-200 is an excellent lens and when the price is factored in it is truly incredible for the money.

Regards
David

I feel a little reluctant to comment on this post as it carries my name in the title! However, as it was 'inspired' by my observations on some gallery posts, I will have a go!

1. I think the tutorial is great Shaun, just what others need, such as Dr O and myself who find Photoshop very un-intuitive and a little baffling. It is powerful software but not the easiest to use and I say this from the perspective of someone who is involved from a functional perspective in software design.

2. I do agree that the subject picture could have been different and this would have hammered home the point a little better. For example a seascape with a tilted horizon would have been ideal.

3. A good point is made earlier in the post that some images with water look tilted when in fact they are not, e.g. a lake where the shoreline is not on the horizon and has one water edge closer than the other.

Please keep it up Shaun, the tutorials are invaluable, even if there are 1000 different ways of achieving an end result, a lot of us don't know any of them.

Regards
David

Welcome Peter, have K-5, K-x and K-m and also a Saab 9-3 1.9 150 TDi, the last before they fitted the particulate filter! Great car, 110,000 miles and going very strong - what a shame GM ruined the company.

Great minds think alike.

Regards
David

No, the K-m has a CCD sensor and that too takes sensational images at low ISO with good light. I may be wrong, but I suspect the K-m sensor may be the same as the one in the K10? I'm sure someone can confirm or deny this.

Regards
David

Sounds like common sense to be Barrie. My gut feeling is that if your suggestions are accepted and the competition run this way there will be many more entries received. I for one would do my best to enter.

Regards
David

I have to agree with you John and unfortunately disagree with dougf8. The fact that entries have to be hot linked to the forum puts me off. I also think that having to use an image taken after the comp is set is a limiting factor. You may recall a few weeks ago I set a Weekly Competition which I didn't think was restrictive, but got lambasted by some for insisting on shots taken with manual focus lenses. This in a competition which allows shots taken at any time, even 40 years ago!

I don't think we can underestimate just how busy many people are (me included) - it's hard enough to find the time to do the hobby justice.

Remove as many barriers as possible and magically more people will enter.

Regards
David

Best advice I can give Lee is to try shooting RAW and I think this will solve the issues you are experiencing. If you don't want to shoot in RAW then I would suggest using alternative software to make your initial edits.

Regards
David

Hi Shaun, really sorry but......I'm still coming!

Bad luck mate you will have to put up with me spoiling your viewpoints and asking you loads of questions again

Cheers
David

More 'constructive' than 'criticism' from me! They are all very nice, the only thing I would change is to use some shadow adjustment to draw out more detail in and around the eyes in no3 and no4.

Regards
David

Hi Lee

I don't think the PC will be a limiting factor here. My old laptop running XP and with only 1gb RAM handled the files with no problem, even the large K-5 ones. Are you shooting some in RAW and some in JPEG? If you want to adjust exposure etc. you will need to shoot in RAW. Also, I found that if I used an earlier version of the software that came with my K-x, it would not handle the K-5 files, so I updated to the latest and it now works fine with all the files from all my cameras.

Hope this helps.

Regards
David