Hi Aidrian thnaks for the links I will give them a whirl. By suggesting that I may like to invest in a good raw converter I am assuming there is not one with PSE?

Hi Does anyone have any experience of using photomatix? If so is this a package worth buying for acheiving good HDR shots by blending 2 or more images of the same scene? I am also thinking of getting elements 6, eventually when funds allow, would these two bits of software complement each other. I have no editing software at present.

Hi

I am about to invest in a tripod and can't decide between ball or pan&tilt head. I will be mostly using it for landscape shots and a few food shots. Anyonye any suggestions as to which may be the better option

Hi

I see you can send digital images to the gallery in the User Mag. Can anyonye tell me how to do this, i.e do you e mail them, send them on a DVD? also what size is max allowed. It is a bit unclear from the mag.

Regards

Johna

I did indeed, Pentax K200D

I have recently purchased a D200 with the kit lens 18 to 55. I do have an older 80 to 320mm (35mm) smc penatx FA 1: 4.5-5.6 but it is very long and heavy and I not sure how good it is in the scheme of things, but I dont know much about them. I also have a 35mm 28-80mm SMC Pentax FA1: 3.5 -5.6. I am not sure on the quality of these lenses or whether the older 28 - 80 wil be better than the kit lens, althoguh the kit lens does seem OK. Any suggestions for upgrading these lenses. I will probably stick with the kit lens for now at least, but would like a better lens to replace the telephoto zoom. I dont want to spend a fortune though!

Cheers
Johna

[img]http://lh5.ggpht.com/johnnameister/SAz-jhP6x6I/AAAAAAAAAnI/Id9MXg74uXw/s800/inve...%20030.jpg[img]

Thanks very much for that.

This was taken on a trip in Argyleshire I liked the texture and colours of the grasses and the trees with the dead tree in the centre to create a kind of abstract feel to the image

So are you saying use DVD R and not DVD RW? If so once you have burned images to a DVD R I assume it is not possible to burn any more even if it is not full, therefore would it not make sense to burn images to a DVD RW until that is full and then transfer them to a DVD R ? I am also unsure of the advanatage or disadvantage of the -ve and +ve prefixes to DVD's!

Hi

When you back up your images on DVD say evey month, do you just back up images for that month or do you back up all images again? Do you use a new DVD each time you back up or do you overwrite on the same DVD? Are there any types of DVD you reccomend to use or to avoid?

I would like to thank everyone who has been a great help to me with your ideas and suggestions.

Cheers

Thanks guys.

What I am understanding then is this. Raw files are uncompressed unprocessed images, so no WB, no sharpening, no contrast, etc. Therefore you need to add the processing you require afterwards before saving the image has a JPEG. You still then have the raw file to work with at a later date if you wish, is that the sole reason for shooting raw? Now what I am not understanding what is the benefit of shooting raw and processing then converting to JPEG, rather than just shooting JPEG in the first place-obviously you dont have a raw image to work with. I am also unsure about is what affect on image quality does processing JPEG's have using software pacakeges such has HP Image zone or PS Elemnets say, how much can you keep altering various parameters without loss of image quality and does in camera processing have any pro's or con's over software packages