Splendid shots, and a tribute to the lens. I shall have to be more polite about Sigmas in future.

G

Definitely buy second-hand. And 43s are usually plentiful and relatively cheap.

I don't own any of the DA Ltds, but I do get the impression that they aren't quite as good as the FA Ltds. They're also quite slow.

My advice would be to go for either the 43 Ltd, or try to find an FA 35mm. Unless you really need your lens to be tiny, I would counsel going for the additional speed of the FA lenses.

G

I like the idea of a program that can use the IPTC data embedded in a JPEG. If you can find the JPEG, it's easy to find the RAW file.

The advantage of using the IPTC data is that you can change programs without losing your cataloguing information.

Anybody have any suggestions for software that uses the IPTC data?

G

It's a bit dark, Clarky. Cropping it wouldn't hurt, too.

G

That has much more impact. On my screen it could do with being a tad brighter, and a tad contrastier.

G

To answer your question, only very old flashguns are likely to have an unacceptably high voltage.

Get a voltmeter, and measure the voltage across the terminals on the flash gun. Unless you are very ublucky, it will be 10 volts or less, and you can use it with perfect safety. In fact you can probably get away with much more.

I used to wire up an old Bowens studio flash to my *ist D. The voltage was over 200. The camera is still fine.

This issue is hyped up enormously by people with shares in Wein!

G

Officially, midnight Sunday (UK time). Unofficially, any time before Prieni posts a message to say the comp is closed. Some judges don't do that until breakfast time on Monday.

G

I've collected my kit over a period, and (in addition to the core kit) have a number of lenses that either came along with something else that I wanted, or have been supplanted by later and better items.

Some day I'll make another effort to sell it. On my last attempt, advertised here, I parted with most of the more desirable items, but there are still one or two nice M lenses and the F 135mm 1:2.8.

G

PS: Clarky. I don't suppose you've been to the IOM in winter. Dark and stormy nights are the mild ones.

Seriously, I used to use the 400s on the *ist D, but they are no good with the K10D, and they lack the controls you need for manual use.

Whilst the 360s work well, I consider them to be a little under-powered. The budget did not permit a brace of 540s, so I bought a couple of 500s and use them on manual. They have a built-in slave, and are very versatile.

If the spring has fallen out, you should be able to remove the adapter. Put two fingers into the throat and press outwards. Then, twist anti-clockwise, and pull.

G

If it's old, it is very unlikely to be wider than the 18-55. In the days of film, the widest Pentax lens was the 15mm, and it was very expensive and correspondingly rare. Most wide-angles were 28mm or 35mm. The smaller the number, the wider the angle.

But to know the answer, just look at what it says on the front of the lens. My guess is that it is an SMC Pentax-M 1:2.8 28mm. The 28mm is the bit that governs the angle of view, and whilst 28mm was quite wide on film, it's not much more than a standard lens on digital.

This is because the digital sensor is smaller than a 25mm film frame, so it only captures the central portion of the image.

G