IE8 here is fine, Virgin is fine, but the ISP does slow down a couple of times a day and needs the router to be rebooted when that happens. After that it's back up to full speed.

Comparable spec Canon L lenses are no better. The only thing they have are more exotic (from an amateur viewpoint) specs in some of the longer lenses in particular.

As we probably couldn't afford or need those anyway, it's a bit academic.

Welcome, and let's see some lovely images from the Isle of Lewis?

Well, as I said, "I wouldn't brighten the owl, otherwise you'll blow out the highlights completely. It's a tad bright as it is, but just within OK."

However, the upside is that despite being borderline too bright, that does mean it competes successfully against that fascinating frame. My eye at least looks at the owl, not the frame, but then lingers around the fame before returning to the owl. If the owl were darker I think it would fall apart. (Not the owl, poor thing, the composition!)

Actually it's very nice - like it very much. Excellent composition and colour and a really interesting subject.

I wouldn't brighten the owl, otherwise you'll blow out the highlights completely. It's a tad bright as it is, but just within OK.

Brilliant picture!

In a world where you can still get 120 film and if you really know where to look 620, 116, 127 and most other sizes, film will still be around, but eventually at a huge cost.

I was going to say "sadly film is probably not the way to go", but I'm not sure I'm that sad about it....digital ticks all the boxes now, for me anyway.

This has been answered elsewhere - basically SRS have had an excellent price, sold all their cameras and now the new price has hit.

Others with slower sales may have a little longer with lower priced stock. They may be charging more for their cameras than SRS were, but for a short while they will seem to be cheaper.

If you're buying, buy quickly!

Or even allowed, but actually of course you can, but in context and not so it overwhelmes the forum with alternative marque talk. Common sense...

Bats fly in darkness, so it's highly unlikely indeed that any AF system would find the creature. If it did then it wouldn't be able to focus in the dimness and the shutter speed would be ludicrous for a flying object.

Prefocusing on a spot and using some sort of IR trigger to fire the flash would seem a likely method. When the bat crosses the trigger beam, the flash fires, or something along those lines perhaps.

Thanks Stefan, but bear in mind that it's referring to the calibration of Nikon cameras, and the calibration of Pentax ones is clearly different.

The grey card has 18% reflectance as this is the value that an "average" scene has been found to average out to. It is also Zone V on the Zone System, a mid tone.

In the case of the camera, this is the "K value" or the point to which the metering is set. Some cameras actually have a K value of 10%, intended to improve shadow detail in auto exposures with negative film.

I doubt that this would help with slides or digital, so I suspect that the Pentax is calibrated to the standard 18% which is why sometimes it is accused of "under exposing" compared to other marques.