These are nice. I didn't bother with fireworks this year as I struggle to find somewhere with a decent foreground / setting, and I think the water really helps here.

I'm also late to this thread. I've had a Kx for some time, and I have also had no battery issues. I had the same experience as someone (John?) posted above, in that the supplied lithium batteries lasted for ages, had a brief test with some standard Duracell AAs to find they only last for a small number of shots (to be fair the manual does say they're only really for emergencies) and then, on reading this forum, I bought a set of Eneloops and the "genuine" Eneloop charger. Since then, that's all I use. I'm frustrated that it takes 11-12 hours to do the charge, but it works for me.

The motherboard thing is a common issue with upgrading firmware, and only really goes away on a device where there can be base firmware in ROM, and a secondary set in EPROM or flash memory, and your upgrade goes into the latter. That way, if the upgrade fails part-way through, the device can detect the failure on next boot, and use the earlier but permanent version. The only trouble is, there isn't really enough room in a camera for this extra level.

One question that I might have missed someone asking or mentioning - what's the "battery type" set to in the camera menu, in setup 3?

I love a nice blurred waterfall.

Oh, they were all accidental - I'd long since given up trying to track any of them and was just hoping for something. I've got another similar one, with a nice grouping of three or four birds, one very sharp and the others much more out of focus than in the one above. Trouble is, it's not the front one that's in focus. But that's the luck of the draw, for me at least. Maybe I'll do some more bird-related stuff, but I have enough trouble with moving shots on cars that are at least only moving in one direction.

Thanks all.

Had a nice trip down to the Elan Valley last week, for a look around the various reservoirs and then back to see the Red Kite feeding. I didn't realise the latter was as organised as it turned out to be - when my mates said it was at 3pm, I figured that these things just naturally happened to turn up around 3-ish to feed, not that someone would come and shovel lots of raw meat out onto a field at exactly that time. Anyway, an interesting experience and one that highlights how difficult it is to track these things when they've seen food.

1. Spotted something


procIMGP9412 by Mike Edwards, on Flickr

2. Got some


procIMGP9381 by Mike Edwards, on Flickr

3. Crowded sky


procIMGP9384 by Mike Edwards, on Flickr

4. Tag someone you know


procIMGP9459 by Mike Edwards, on Flickr

5.


procIMGP9270 by Mike Edwards, on Flickr

6.


IMGP9276_stitch by Mike Edwards, on Flickr

Some of the birds came out better than I expected, though as with most fast-moving things, I've deleted plenty of shots. I found it quite uncomfortable shooting from inside the hide we were in, though that might have been partly because I was at the end aimed at wheelchair users so the slot is a bit lower down. I kept tracking a bird and then finding I was up into the roof of the hide, so I went outside after a bit. I'm not sure I should have done that. The bird shots are using the Sigma 50-500, but I've had to do a bit of sharpening and fiddling.

I'd like to visit the reservoirs again, we didn't really leave ourselves enough time to have much of a look and ended up having to miss one of the dams out. I think the solution would be to just pick one or maybe two and walk around, rather than driving as we did, as there are several places where parking isn't possible but might have made a decent image.

As always, comments and critique welcome.

Lovely.

Oh, well done. I've been keeping an eye open for that one in case I can think of a use for it, and my heart leaps every time I see one. Then I realise it actually says "1:2", not "1:1.2".

Yes, very much so. I would imagine there's a limit as people are around, and to be fair I'm not familiar enough with the place to be able to suggest what would make it "better" for want of a better word.

Now I look again, I'm starting to be a bit unimpressed by the lighting around the place. I think they could have done more interesting things to really bring it to life after dark. I know that they have people staying there (and living there?) so there's a need to have lights so guests can actually see where they are going, but that seems to be the bulk of it, just illumination rather than creative lighting. Other than lighting one arch in blue it all just seems a bit bland. Maybe there isn't scope to do anything else.

I hope it's clear I'm disappointed with the place itself, not your photos Peter.