The flashgun that Pentax made at the same time as the Spotmatic and is recommended in the Spotmatic instruction books is the Super-Lite II. Fully manual but quite powefull (ASA 100 F5.6 @ 15ft) it runs on 4 AA cells or on mains with an optional adaptor. It covers a 28mm lens, which is really quite wide. They come up on ebay sometimes which is where I got mine - it works too which is pretty good for a flash more than 30 years old.

Ken

I buy from and ebay shop 'Mr Studio one', he's in Hong Kong and the service is excellent - 10 to 16 days shipping to UK - £9.99 for 16 channel Tx and Rx

I seem to remember that Macromedia had a Dreamweaver add-on which allowed clients to upload files without mucking up the site, sorry I cant remember what it is/was called

If you are referring to my recent tragedy, my laptop fell 5 feet onto a hard floor, dont think anything would have come out of that unscathed! I would think of the external HD as the primary storage device, its good practice to keep the media on a different drive from the OS. I use a Freecom 80GB as my main storage device for photos (its tiny, shirt pocket size) and use a 250gb mains powered one to back up everything and that is kept in a safe. Just because I'm paranoid... etc.

Ken[/i]

I have two dells, a desktop and a laptop. My original thinking was that every company I have ever worked for (some very large like the BBC) use Dells so I figured they must be relaible and cheap! I've been using a succession of Dells now for around 12 years. I've never called a helpline and never had a breakdown. I took delivery of an Inspiron 6400 a couple of weeks ago only because its predecessor fell off a shelf, I like it a lot especially the built in card-slot, wi-fi, bluetooth and firewire. At work we use G6 Macs with a terrabyte of storage so I know that Macs are 'better' perhaps for media work but at home and compromising with the needs of running a small business, I've been really happy with Dell PCs. As Matt rightly says you have to do your research. The latest one was quoted with a delivery time of 10 days, it came in 4 and the build quality is far better than the one it has replaced.

Much as I appreciate how sophisticated the latest Pentax guns are, for the work you describe, I dont really think that it is the way to go. IMHO a manual studio head (or two) with brollies would be far more controlable than a piddly wee gun that is primarily intended to fit on a hot shoe. For show stuff you dont really, I think, want to wash out whatever lighting effects are in place. Given the usual relatively low light levels and high contrast ratios in these situations it is always tricky but you should set the WB to tungsten and the ISO as high as you can. An effective solution I have used is (and this is entirely dependent on a spare lighting circuit on the dimmer board and a number of unused lanterns as well as goodwill from the theatre spark) is to purchase a number of those little flash heads with an ES fitting and a built in slave and fit them into the 'spare' lanterns effectively replicating the theatre lighting. That circuit on the dimmer needs to be up full and you will, of course need a radio trigger. Dont forget to set the WB to flash and dont worry about the tungsten lamps remaining!

Ken

I have used COLAB in Coventry over a period of 20 years with no complaints ever. Last month they changed their name to Onevision. I've just had over four hundred prints delivered - all perfect. They will set you up with an ftp account where you can upload directly to their servers or you can use their downloadable software and I suspect they also have a letterbox. Great prices and a fantastic communication eg. they phone you checking details etc.

Ken

For some of us its crucial, along with depth of field table and scales!

Ken

I'm with Justgetoutandride on the first one, upping the contrast could make the bridge 'zing' out a bit more and I like the second but... perhaps more contrast too and this is really a shot that demands the use of hyperfocal distance focusing.

Ken

What vintage Pentaxes do you own, I've photgraphed some of mine, any one have the rare Pentaxman 5x4?


http://www.penciloflight.com/tlr.jpg
http://www.penciloflight.com/pentax%20r1a.jpg
http://www.penciloflight.com/BELLOWS.jpg

And this was my car on the way to a shoot (not kidding)
http://www.penciloflight.com/carfull.jpg


Ken