I'm putting images from that archive into the Gallery currently, and have been doing on and off for a few days.

I guess we can then judge for ourselves whether or not I've improved!

I see a lot of photography when I'm judging competitions and in the sense of images the standard has increased very significantly sice the advent of digital. Imagination and skills have IMHO increased because the feedback from our images is instant - we can see immediately what we have achieved rather than waiting for a film to be processed.

There is also no cost, so we all learn and improve much quicker than with film.

Then we hit a ceiling and to get beyond that we need to be a bit more dedicated or single minded about it. Turning technical competence into truly great images is not easy, but with superb facilities for improvement such as forum discussions and ePHOTOzine as well as clubs, magazines and a wealth of photography on the web, we have every aid to improve.

What is now being lost is the craft of photography such as the traditional black and white darkroom print. At their best they can be truly staggering, but only in the flesh, so to speak, no good on a monitor screen or printed in a book.

I used to be quite a good printer, a friend of mine printed 300 pictures a day as his job and he was a superb printer. But even he was surpassed by some 20" x24" prints I once handled that were so utterly fantastic that I realise that we will never again experience that level of pure, lucious quality.

So in summary I would say that we have lifted our game generally and by some margin, but the very top 1% or 2% has probably gone for ever.

I just love taking pictures, of anything and everything.

But best of all I like specific projects and photography days with some end result in mind, be it writing an article, presenting a lecture, teaching photography both in studio and in the field.

Anything really.

The future's bright, the future's.....red, blue and white?

The wife test isn't the best as people tend to move. The 30mm at f1.4 would have very little leeway, so it's not really conclusive.

Tripod, daylight and static subject is my suggestion. Dominoes in a staggered line would be a possibility.

You have a point about colour. Colour affects metering and may also affect AF. Then again, not all lenses focus all colurs of light at the same point.

If your pictures look sharp then I wouldn't worry too much. If you feel the need for further investigation then maybe a black and white target would be better.

It has a flatter field and better resolution. You can see the actual figures in my thread "50mm Lenses"

https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/topic/50mm-lenses-14695

That is a bargain. Well done and good luck with turning any unwanted items into a profit.

Both you guys put my baragain today into the shade, but I was pleased to get a mint SMC Pentax-F 50mm f1.7 for just £99.00. I've been waiting a while for one of these as I prefer the f1.7 to the f1.4.

For very low light focusing I illuminate the scene with my very bright LED torch. I have been known to use it as a light source for the image as well.

For star trails I'd just use the stars themselves as the point of focus - they will be sharper points when in focus.

What a nightmare for collectors who must have one example of each model...who's going to order 100 cameras?