I prefer the original because it looks more attractive and the colours don't look so strained. Your second HDR version has lots of blown out highlights and blocked shadows, totally the reverse of what HDR is trying to achieve.

HDR is an attempt to reproduce the darkest and lightest areas in a scene that would normally be outside the dynamic range available.

Your original has better dynamic range...

The second version looks much better IMHO.

Which is why of course others decided not to go into detail when moving on to something else. It very easily becomes highly contentious and I hope this thread is not going to go the same way.

I plan to take my WR lenses out into the rain this weekend...

I'm not so sure that you'll have much of a problem with low light on safari, probably quite the opposite, but you've made your decision based upon your own requirements, so it's a bit late to debate it...and in any event everyone has different requirements.

Have a good time when you go away and I hope the new choices work out very well for you.

Did you think of just hiring a camera and lenses for the week?

You must have bought a Nikon long lens? I ask because Sigma and Tamron lenses are available in Pentax mount.

You must indeed have spent a lot of money!

No-one here, there's the best one just next door - ePHOTOzine!

Zoom was stupendous, but perhaps not a general photo magazine?

There's a perfect set of lenses for the photography we do, not for all types of photography.

For my film photography, my perfect set of lenses was 20-24-50-100mm. The 100mm could be a macro lens if that was appropriate.

For digital, it is 12-24, 16-45, 50, 55-300 and 100 Macro. The 16-45 would probably be 17-70 now.

I think those supplements are dreadful - incredibly superficial and disorganised.

Somebody needs to produce a "proper" photographic magazine. As an example I would suggest the earlier Jack Scofield edited issues of Photo Technique. Bright, young and enthusiastic and not afraid to go into things in proper detail.

I realise that a new magazine would have to be updated from that in terms of style, but I don't see anyone even trying just now. And much as I like the interactive nature of the web, I still feel a need for the printed page which can be stored and used as reference material. Web based information lasts as long as the server is active.

I doubt that we will have much access to 100 year old web information when the time comes, but we can have 100 year old magazines at our fingertips now.