What sort of price did you have in mind?

I'm with Ken in the sense that decisions on which to keep are best left for later. OK, an occasional check on the camera that all is well is fair enough, but contsantly checking images whilst shooting does lead to missed opportunities.

Shoot first, ask questions afterwards...

Technique wise, we need to be aware that a bit of exposure compensation (maybe +1 stop) is needed in snow to prevent everything looking grey.

Inspirationally, the landscape looks magical. To make it so in a photograph needs careful composition, and it can be difficult. If you are not "seeing" the images that are there, I suggest maybe taking a batch of them anyway and then seeing what they look like on your monitor.

We can't force inspiration, but have to start somewhere!

Perhaps, but do you think it's sharp? Is it sharp compared to other lenses you have?

All camera meters are calibrated to a given K value, or mid grey point. Nominally we would expect this to be 18% reflectance, but 10% is often used as well.

The angle of view and operator technique will vary enormously as well. The important thing is to know how our cameras behave through practice and adjust accordingly to taste.

I suppose if we'd both started to bid very soon it wouldn't have been such a bargain any more.

Ah well.....

That was a very low price and I must be slipping to miss it!

You asked for an honest reply, and to be honest the image isn't really very sharp. Lenses even wide open can be sharp, although DOF will be very limited, and a Perfect Lens would actually be at its best wide open.

Sadly there is no such thing as a Perfect Lens, so most are best at medium apertures.

No point having a screen image with 300ppi that has to be displayed at 72ppi.

300ppi is standard for printing and for megazine/book reproduction.

72ppi resolution for the web.