I had something similar to that, an old Jessops Slide Duplicator, but I didn't find the results to be all that good so I got rid of it. Basically the idea was the same - it had a Series VII mount and screwed onto the filter ring with a suitable adapter, I think the only difference between what you have and the Jessops product is that the Jessops one was enclosed between the end of the lens and the slide mount, perhaps to reduce stray reflections on the front of the slide. Though from your results it doesn't look as if that's a problem for you.

Interesting that there's such a difference in scanners, it will be interesting to see what difference the different scanner makes. I am reasonably happy with the quality of my cheap one, but then I'm not sure of the quality of the originals, a lot of the slides I'm scanning are sourced from car boots and so on, to say nothing of my terrible eyesight.

Stan, Gareth, will you post "before and after" scans please when you've exchanged a slide?

I bought a cheapo slide scanner from Maplin when they opened locally (£19.95) and I'm pretty impressed. The biggest trouble is that the software is junk, won't work on XP Pro with the latest updates so I have to use an old laptop and make sure I don't update it by mistake. It might be better on Vista (that's not something you hear often) or Win7. The actual device is a webcam, so it's very quick to scan the image. You can set whether you're scanning colour negatives, slides or mono negatives, to cut out that last step of inverting negs.

I couldn't say I've noticed much trouble with the colour, but these are also very old slides, 25+years.

[IMG]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a149/hpfirenza/slides/2010-12-04_12.jpg[/IMG]

I use "Quick Web Photo Resizer" from DZSoft - open it up, set the required size, drag the pictures in and drag the resized ones out again. The sizes are customisable, and it's intelligent in deciding how to deal with a mixture of portrait and landscape.

I must admit I've no idea of cost, I got mine with a magazine cover disc.

As far as I can make out, this highlights where a value is different from the previous picture that you viewed the image data for. So if you move from one at 1/400 to one at 1/320, it will be red, anything that hasn't changed will not be. I *think* this paragraph from the help covers it:

"You can display an item by highlighting the item if there is a difference between the data of a previous image and data of the current image when images are displayed in Image Preview Page. Select the highlighting method (different color or bold font) using the [Options] dialog on the [Tool] menu. "

Not the clearest explanation, if you look in the tool - options section it's a bit more obvious.

Ah, will remember next time. Like I'll remember to take the zoom instead.

This is an annual re-enactment of the Battle of Nantwich put on by the local Round Table and many volunteers. Decided to only take the kit 18-55 lens, wish I'd put the zoom on now. Saw another chap with a Pentax DSLR though, that doesn't happen all that often.

I think I've got a problem with something, though - I've had to sharpen these up before they're any good, it's as if the camera is applying a kind of 'painting' filter to all the photos when viewed 1:1. But I'll have a look at whether it needs cleaning before I post an image for help.

Meantime, some pics, as always the atmosphere is ruined in some by the modern traffic furniture.

[IMG]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a149/hpfirenza/Battle%20of%20Nantwich%202012/Imgp3132.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a149/hpfirenza/Battle%20of%20Nantwich%202012/Imgp3051.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a149/hpfirenza/Battle%20of%20Nantwich%202012/Imgp3153.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a149/hpfirenza/Battle%20of%20Nantwich%202012/Imgp3041.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a149/hpfirenza/Battle%20of%20Nantwich%202012/Imgp2956.jpg[/IMG]

Hi, thanks for that. I took a load of the wheel as it's very photogenic, but once you start looking at them, they're all very similar. I was trying to do better than the ones I took last year, in a way I did as I managed to not lose the quick-release bit off my tripod this year, unlike last year.

All of them were on Boxing Day. The ones that aren't in the city are in Higher Ferry, on the B5129.

Once I'd got fed up with the shops the other day I had a look around the city. I ventured out west a little to get a distant shot of the illuminated ferris wheel, only to find the angles were all wrong.

Any comments greatly appreciated. I haven't done a lot of processing on them, not least because I haevn't figured out yet how to do anything other than basic cropping. It wasn't until I got home that I realised I'd have been better off shooting the first photo from the other side of the bridge, so the houses weren't in shot. That said, I don't know whether the sky might not have been so nice in that direction.

[IMG]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a149/hpfirenza/Chester%20Christmas%202011/IMGP2895-web.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a149/hpfirenza/Chester%20Christmas%202011/IMGP2893-web.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a149/hpfirenza/Chester%20Christmas%202011/IMGP2894-web.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a149/hpfirenza/Chester%20Christmas%202011/IMGP2899-web.jpg[/IMG]

The wheel is in a different location this year, without quite so many nice buildings in the surrounding area.

[IMG]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a149/hpfirenza/Chester%20Christmas%202011/IMGP2924-web.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a149/hpfirenza/Chester%20Christmas%202011/IMGP2926edit-web.jpg[/IMG]

Well done, that's a nice shot.

Brand loyalty aside, I never understand why photographic competitions offer stuff like cameras as prizes as you obviously must have one to have entered in the first place.