I don't have a fog machine but I'll give your saltpetre/sugar recipe a go - cheers for that!

Nice!

I've been doing a few of these smoke shots myself recently but I'm struggling to come up with something that will give me reliable (repeatable) patterns. I've read joss sticks are supposed to be good but I don't seem to be getting much joy from them.

The best one (for me) so far was this:




...which was achieved using bits of old newspaper in an ashtray. I'm really looking for something that creates a finer plume though so if anyone has any suggestions..?

For $500 US you could have the DA 21 that you're lusting after: http://search.ebay.co.uk/pentax-21mm_W0QQ_trksidZm37QQflocZ1QQfromZR40QQsaslcZ2Q...

When you say "economical", how much (or little) are you looking at spending?

Congratulations all and well judged AJ - I loved the winning pic too, fantastic markings to contrast with the toast itself, I only wish I'd thought of it!

Welsh Rarebit




K10D / D-FA 100 Macro / f8 / 1 sec / ISO100

I really like this - very Escher-esque!

For the same sort of price as the 3 primes couldn't you get the 16-50 and either the 35 or the 50 as well? You'd have the versatility of the zoom and the speed/quality of at least one prime (I'd probably go for the 35 as it's effectively a "normal" and therefore a good general purpose FOV on digital).

I've had several attempts at taking a shot for this week's compo and they're all uniformly rubbish. I am really stuck on this one...

I do quite a bit of (indoor) architectural photography and I chose the DA12-24 over the Sigma because in all of the photos I seem to see from the 10-20 there is what I would call an unacceptable level of distortion. Not nice, easy-to-correct-in-Photoshop distortion but the horrible wavy kind.

If you need straight lines in your photos then I see no competition; the DA has minimal (and very linear) barrel distortion at the wide end and no distortion at all (that's visible to the eye) at the 24mm end.

If on the other hand you want a WA for landscapes and nature shots where distortion is less of an issue, then the price and the extra 2mm on the wide end of the Sigma make it very tempting.

It's a horses for courses thing - neither would be a really bad choice but I do genuinely believe (and was prepared to back with my own hard-earned cash) that the Pentax is a significantly better lens.

Just my $0.02