I love my 50mm 1.7 FA which I acquired 2nd hand for £69 through the LCE a few years ago when I had a 1st DS. It remains my favourite lens. I also use it as my reference when I have any doubts over focusing accuracy of other lenses.

I also have a 50mm 1.4 FA, this time bought nearly new, but occasionally my K10D has an issue gaining focus with this lens and for single chance type subjects (e.g. trains in motion) prefer the 1.7.

Glyn

I think this weeks subject is a very challenging. It is not the sort of subject I can find as stock in my collection although I'm sure I have seen John's tower in a couple of previous competitions

I'm not terribly happy with my submission. It was cold & damp out by the canal this morning. I really wanted a bridge so I could put the ghost coming under it but the lighting was all wrong and the bridge pictures came out too noisy so I have settled with a lock. I am sure that the couple of people I did meet must have thought I was completely mad!

However it has made me explore bits of Photoshop Elements that I have never used before so there is some benefit.

Glyn

I don't think so. None of my Sigma EX lenses have it. I believe that quick-shift is a Pentax feature that seems to have been introduced with their DA range of lenses.

Glyn

I also have the Sigma 135-400 and have used it for aircraft in flight. The biggest problem I have is the time it takes to focus, particularly if the camera decides to hunt end-to-end in the focus range.

While I hanker after something faster I, like ChrisA, have found the Pentax 55-300 very reasonable. An advantage with this lens is that the quick-shift focus allows manual adjustment to get it close without disengaging the auto focus and helps to avoid the camera doing an end-end focus hunt.

I have some very similar Vucan pictures and you can see a selection of my Farnborough 2008 pictures here:

http://s172.photobucket.com/albums/w20/GlynM/Farnborough%202008/?albumview=slideshow

Glyn

If I remember correctly there have been two "guerilla", non-official, methods for focus correction on the k10D and neither are for the faint hearted.

The first one was that someone leaked the key sequence for debug mode but it only worked on firmware version 1.10. Normally you can't downgrade the firmware but someone hacked a version of 1.10 that you could downgrade to. You could then enter debug mode and perform the focus adjustments. Once done you then upgraded back to the latest firmware and the focus adjustment was maintained.

The second method involved using a program found on the web which could be used to turn on & off debug mode via the USB connection to the camera. Unfortunately I think it was written in Russian and even then the character set did not work so all the instructions were nonsense. However as usual someone worked out what each button in the program did.

I have used both methods with success but you must consider the risk of causing damage to your camera and be very confident you know what you are doing before trying either method.

I found that a quick Google search of "K10D debug mode" found links to at least the second method.

Glyn

Lovely Chinook.

It looks like you had the same grey conditions as here. I have not been out today but had similar conditions on Wednesday and many of my pictures look more like silhouettes. Although they can be brightened in processing end up being a bit noisy. However your Chinook looks great.

Glyn

I've had mine for nearly a month (1st new lens in almost a year!) but only put it to extreme use this week and I think it behaved very well:

[IMG]http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w20/GlynM/Misc/IMGP5539-c2-Vsmall.jpg[/IMG]

Typhoon on approach at Farnborough on Monday.

300mm, 1/350 sec at F11, ISO 100 and +0.5ev

Glyn

Topical Ugly




1/5th Scale model using DA*16-50 @ 36mm 1/6 sec, F22, ISO1100

My Dad, with his tools, applying his skills.

I would just like to say many thanks to John for awarding me the 2nd place.

I love entering these competitions but have always considered myself to be towards the canon fodder end of the submissions. I'm always impressed by the quality of pictures posted by everyone else.

You have all made me think hard not only about the technical aspects but also about what story the picture is trying to get across.

I was very surprised to receive my first listing this week and I feel very honoured.

Thanks again John,

Glyn