Many thanks for the suggestions chaps

Afternoon all -

Can anyone recommend a reasonably priced portable portrait background frame/fabric etc? It's not for heavy professional use, my better half is starting a new venture and needs some decent portraits doing where there may not be a blank wall etc.

TIA,

Ha, complete opposite, I love my Gorillapod - best £20 I've spent

Hot shoe spirit level (the little digital one) - I used it once in two years on my K200D then upgraded to a K-7 and didn't need it anymore. It's probably still floating around in my kit bag somewhere

The DA* profiles should be downloaded/installed when you update to LR3.3

link

If you scroll down a bit there are some really excellent video tutorials for LR3 that have helped me a lot. I'd start with LR3 and work your way across to CS5 - I find i use LR3 95% of the time these days without having to jump up to CS5.

Got a Manfrotto 680B for Christmas, and I'm pretty sure it ticks all your boxes. It's light (800g), straps to the back of my Kata 3n1-20 nicely and seems very well built and sturdy. I use it with my gripped K7 and DA* 60-250 (with the tripod mount) and it does the job perfectly. I haven't even bothered with a head for it to be honest.

I've kept SR on when using it, seems to make sense

Google translate version for those not fluent in German:

link

Hi all -

My 73 year old father has decided he needs to get into this digital photography thing, and as such has asked for a camera as a Christmas present. Now, I'm more than happy to oblige him but to avoid me becoming more of a 24-hour technical support line than I already am (PC, wireless, TV, DVD - anything with a plug on the end is my area of expertise ) I need to identify one that is as straightforward as possible to use but gives excellent quality snaps. Does anyone have any experience of the Pentax compact range (or any other manufacturers) and can you recommend one? From what I've seen choosing a new SLR is a darn sight easier than choosing a compact!!!!

Make sure you install v 3.2 - v 3.0 has serious speed issues which have been fixed in 3.2