That would be a weird image Stefan!

Hopefully we will get an answer soon.

For digital photography, the polariser is almost the only filter you will ever need. Everything else can be done in Photoshop without putting extra glass in front of the lens.

Bear in mind that there's no point putting colour correction filters on if you use AWB - the effect will be removed or watered down.

As regards protection filters, this is a moot point. Personally I have never damaged the front element of a lens. Some here have had a lens damaged by a fracturing filter. The exception might be at the coast where it could be useful to protect a lens against salt spray.

Filters will potentially degrade image quality, not least because the glass is not fully shielded by the lens hood, being further forwards than the front element of the lens.

My advice would be to always use a lens hood. This will reduce flare, improve contrast and also afford some protection in itself to the front element.

Thanks everyone, I've sorted my own issues now, with your help, and this thread might be helpful to others as well.

Thanks all of you, at least we're up and running and those ideas can be looked at next.

Moving to Windows 7 and 64-bit operating sytems is still in its infancy in some respects (no Adobe Flash Player yet) and in others it's leaving behind some good kit.

Our Nikon Coolscan IV, along with all Nikon film scanners, even the £2500 ones, are not recognised by Windows 7. The Nikon website says they have no plans to work on compatible software, apologies for any inconvenience and we hope you will buy Nikon again! Actually loading the software is fine, but the system just does not see the scanner.

Fortunately we still have a Vista laptop and that works like a dream....so we're scanning again.

Now Sue is having a go with Sims3.....early days yet!

At least Windows 7 is not asking for permission to follow instructions at every turn...

I like that, it's a great idea done superbly well.

You shouldn't use cards as an archive because the information on them will eventually be unreadable - see the instruction book on SD cards.

Always format a card in the camera it is to be used in, so first download all your images to your computer.

Backup can be on an inexpensive external drive, or burned to CD or DVD.

Doing what you are planning will cause grief eventually, maybe immediately.

Lovely shot, superb colour and sharpness.

It's an argument that is not restricted only to digital imaging.

Some years ago I was explaining to a friend how we could use different grades of paper in the darkroom and crop the image for the optimum composition.

"That's not fair!" he declared and he was basically saying that because it meant that "ordinary photographers" could not compete.

Of course by that logic it would be unfair for anyone to have any skills that they could use, so I thought it was a strange view to have.

In the case of digital imaging there is a similar school of thought that somehow Photoshop is "wrong" but I think it's really only the same as working to improve an image in the darkroom.