Well I strongly disagree, Pete should be banned from this forum, have his camera confiscated and be permanantly deported to Spain, his pics have got steadilly worse and he is giving me an inferiority complex I just got back from Fuerteventura and All I got was some Ruddy Turnstones (no thats not swearing) a Little Egret, Spanish Sparrows and some Chipmunks, WHY couldnt "I" go to Almeria and get those rubbish shots




PS: Pete, when you finally move over there are you going to be doing escourted photographic tours

Sorry

Like I said I would have taken it myself, it IS a nice scene, its just not got that WOW factor.

Maybe I am been over critical (listening to judges at the camera club does that to a person y'know) I tend to do a critique on an image with a view to it been a competition entry.

The first of the second two is more to my liking, but how can I criticise it without seeming over critical again? lets see, IMHO I would have lost a bit off the bottom, leaving about an inch below the penquins (sorry my eyes are bloodshot, too much beer ) it would also crop off those dust on sensor spots that you failed to clone out (yes I have done that too, we all have )

I wondered if I should look at this thread, particularly with an invitation to "guess what I've been doing"
Anyway curiosity got the better of me and I am pleased to say I wasn't shocked or offended

I like the contrast between the colour of the water and the colour of the metalwork, but......thats about as far as it goes, for me anyway, sorry mate!

I can see where your coming from with the lead in over the bridge but it doesnt' lead anywhere, maybe I would like it more if it was more symetrical? maybe not.

I sincerely hope you posted this pic for some honest critique (cos thats the only kind I do ) but for me it just doesnt work, having said all that I have to put my hands up and admit if I had seen that I would have snapped it as well that water is just soooo tempting.

Quick Edit......the exposure is spot on

Hi Errol, welcome the the forum.

Why cant you use the pop up flash on the camera to fire the slaves on the studio flash? or are they "slave" via cables?

Rodger, you failed to say "on no account touch the focusing screen or attempt to clean it with anything other than a blower brush or compressed air"
Taking your advice of "clean the screen" the guy may as well soak it in caustic soda to "clean" it

Sorry to be so pinickity but I F****d up the focusing screen on my istD by trying to clean it with a lens tissue .

I recal the olden days when focusing screens were made of ground glass instead of the "look at me and I scratch" plastic of today.

The Pentax 80-320 is quite nice, I got this with it recently;

https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3841

For birding I would say its a little short though, unless your filedcraft is on a par with Gollum and you like "sneaking" around then I would suggest you go for at least 400mm, but in all honesty I think you'll wish you'd gone for something longer;

Sigma 50-500
Sigma 170-500

....but did Bens and Dons magazines publish the details of the equipment used? I doubt it very much, I assume Petes question was aimed solely at photographic magazines, if we take into account any magazine on the market then we can deduce that Pentax gear was used in quite a few of them especially pro studio or landscape shots etc, and when the new medium format digital hits the streets...

I have seen the odd image credited to Pentax gear, some of it quite old too.
I'm with Gwyn, its just the sheer volume of Canon/Nikon users out there, its like airlines claiming flying is safer than getting on a bus, they fail to point out its because there are far more buses

I doubt that magazines will choose one image over another simply based on the gear its shot on, unless its for a specific brand feature.

There is only one decent magazine available anyway, and you have to be a member of an elite group and subscribe to it

Hi Liam

Welcome to the forum

Consider loking for the MZ5n as a replacement, basically its the same camera but with depth of field preview button added. Not sure if auto-bracketing was also an added feature, did you have that on the MZ5?

The MZ5n was my all time fave camera, but sadly mine has just gone belly up

I think my MZ5n has finally bit the dust , I was going to put a film through it but despite a fresh set of batteries when I press the shutter all I get is a whining noise, trying the DoF preview gets the same noise, sounds like its something to do with stopping the lens down prior to shutter release.
The Auto-Focus works OK as does everything else.

Suggestions anyone? apart from bin it or sell it for spares

PS the batteries are OK in my MZ7 so its not those.