Hello all

I've not had my k-7 long enough yet to drain the battery and I need a full charge tomorrow.

I also have a spare battery made by INOV8, which I just tested and the camera claims it's fully charged. Any experience with this third party battery? Can I rely on it for a half day solid shooting, and should it be pre charged?

My Pentax battery says it's half empty. I don't want to put it to charge now without it being drained first.

Any advice anyone please?

my answer would be part time semi pro. or is that the same thing? :

thanks all for input

brightstone - pm sent

something to allow me to get wider and better quality shots than the 18-55mm WR kit lens really.

ideally the pentax 12-24mm f4 or the sigma 10-20mm, but open to all suggestions...

Just missed a sale of a Samsung lens. If anyone else is pondering a sale of their ultra wide let me know the details...

forgot to add: i'd really love to have a macro lens too. ambitious budget i know!

hi all

i'm upgrading from my pentax k-m. it's served me well, but its performance beyond ISO 400 is what's forcing the change up.

i've tried some research but i'm sure you people can tell me much better.

can you tell me what kinds of costs i'm looking at to purchase:

k7 body
50mm autofocus (f1.8 is ok)
a reasonable wide angle
a flash good enough for indoor events. must be detachable
a reasonable zoom lens (can be manual)

i already have the 18-55mm kit lens and a 50mm manual focus f1.7. i want a digital one so that it doesn't crop/zoom on the digital sensor.

i'm tempted by the nikon d90 as lenses seem so much cheaper. i'm sure mentioning a rival brand will fire up responses!

all guidance much appreciated. i do the odd paid job, so i don't need the best kit, but i like working in natural light and really want good performance in low light. my budget is max £1,5000. this may mean i can't get all of the above just yet?

thanks in advance...

hi all. i have the kit lens too, so can always photoshop to declutter the background if i can't shoot outside. so i have two back up options... was gonna use it on its wider angle to get some group shots of some other things, but i think i'll get the portraits too just to be safe.

for the record, the supplier i bought the sigma 28mm A from is meeting me later to swap it, with choice of 50mm and 80mm (or something similar) so fingers crossed!

This is great I'm learning so much on here with all your input.

I'll update my location, which is East London, working in central London

I also just got a 50mm centon or sun lens without the a setting. It would be fine for this job on tomorrow but I'm a bit concerned about spending time guessing at the exposure and not really knowing if I've got a sharp image until I see it on the laptop... I suppose if I set up a tripod and get them all to sit in the same spot I can avoid some of this trouble

Haha I have an offer for some paid work too - I think this is all coming too soon!!

Also, I was recommended a light meter (metre?) in a shop for this, the assistant demonstrated using one manually and his shot did get perfect skin tones. Anyone use one?

thank you very much all for your input!

and also for the spelling correction

ok so it sounds like something's not right with this sigma 28mm A i've bought it appears to be clean, i can see the aperture opening and closing when the lense is alone, and the springy bit seems to work to move adjust the aperture too. haha i'm such an ameteur on this forum

looks like i may have to use my back up option of a canon ftb 35mm with a proper 50mm lens for this job on friday then...

does anyone know where i can buy a reliable lens for portraits on my pentax k-m? i'm trying to avoid spending big on any new lenses while on my beginners camera body...