Sorry, but it doesn't do anything for me even with the post-production shadows added!
Ken

Just a thought...

You can combine the two technologies and get the best of both worlds by shooting on film for the look, scanning the negs and make digital prints with ease. You also have the advantages of being able to use PS. I dont fancy going back into the darkroom and there were always pro printers who could do it better than me anyway!

Ken

overheard outside an exhibition I had: 'look, darling, prints for sale! Oh, they're only photographs...'

Richard,

Bridge cameras are truly vile things, particularly if you've used a film slr, I've used a couple and the viewfinders are the worst part. I'm sure you would find the move to a Pentax DSLR totally intuitive PLUS your lenses will work albeit with a 1.5x increase in focal length. Your 100-300 will effectively become the equivalent of a 150-450, a real advantage if you enjoy wild life photography.

Ken

Some time ago on the Yahoo pentax user group there was a thread about sticking irises. I seem to remember that there was a suggestion that if the fault was caused by grease then it might be cured by leaving the lens in a sealed container with an open dish of lighter fluid - the vapours would dissolve the grease after a week or so, although one might think that they would also dissolve any grease that was meant to be in the lens. I accept no resposibility for this!!!

Ken

I haven't any experience of bugs but I know a taxidermist who gives small reptiles a whiff of ether before taking latex casts of them. They wake up just as the latex cures

Hi Daniel,

I've been using it too for a while. First thing I realized was that I had to double the ram to the max (Sorry, cant remember the figures) on my laptop - is two years old still new? Probably not.

As others have commented above, close down everything you dont need running. I've been scanning 35mm negs at maximun res. for archiving purposes and three or four open at once seems to be about as much as the machine can handle.
here is something to try: I work mainly in film and TVand it is received knowledge that you never have the media on the same drive as the software. Due to the fact that 'In the fidller's house no one dances' I haven't tried this at home but it might work. I bought an 80gb external HD that fits in a shirt pocket from PC World for less than £70 so I should really give it a try.

Another issue is that modern software is constantly doing stuff in the background .Ctrl+alt+delete, then the 'processes' tab is very revealing.

Good luck

Ken

John is absolutely correct on this. I'm using Pentax SMC UV and skylight filters in the hope that the SMC coating should be better than other or no coatings but...

I had always used filters for 'protection' until a zoom lens rolled off the top of a Billingham bag which was on a carpeted floor. The lens landed front element down on the carpet, having rolled all of 9 inches and the filter smashed all over the front element. Even after carefully removing the broken filter glass there are scratches on the lens. I cant help thinking that if there had been no filter there would have been no damage.

I suppose it all depends on circumstances at the time.

Ken

Buy the biggest and sturdiest you can afford; they wont let you down. I have Velbon legs that I've used and abused for 29 years, the head eventually gave out and I replaced it with a Manfrotto one. If you are in a situation where you need legs, you'll be carrying a ton of gear anyway so the tripod wont be any extra big deal.

Ken

Fantastic, did you know you had a stone chip on your wing?
Ken