Fantastic colour and sharpness. I like it.

There was a Takumar (Bayonet) version, a simplifued 4 element lens that was fine when stopped down.

Thanks for posting the alternative.

I think my preference might be for the colour saturation and composition of the first one, just without the white area. The second one is slightly weaker in terms of saturation and the more distant shot also seems to reduce the impact.

Nice image. Love the colour and detail. Curious as to why the white band at the top has been left in, I'd have taken that out?

Using the K10D and K20D I normally shoot at 200 ISO. But if it needs to be faster, I'd rather the shot be sharp and grainy than blurred through camera shake, so I'd use whatever ISO was necessary to get the shot.

This is one of the beauties of digital - you can do all that experimentation without further cost.

As regards DOF here, the simplest approach is the trial and error one. At least it avoids Excel spreadsheets! I would use the smallest aperture that I could, with the camera firmly clamped to a sturdy tripod. I think I would be using around f11 or f16 for this shot. Not f22 straight away because definition will drop off at the dmallest apertures.

If there was too little or too much DOF then it's simple enough to shoot another frame at a different aperture.

Hope that helps!

Just a few pointers about posting and commenting on images.

When posting please give some details about the image - how it was taken, why it was taken and anything else that you think will be of interest. Please be prepared for people to comment and also be aware that some will like and some will not like your picture.

When commenting please be constructive and respectful. Someone has invested time and effort in making an image that they want to share, so say what you find positive as well as what you think could be improved.

In all cases the discussion should be about the images and not about personalities. Most of the time this is absolutely fine, but if occasionally a thread descends into arguments then it will be locked and if necessary removed. This is very rarely necessary and in fact almost unheard of as this is a very friendly forum!

Enjoy the discussion!

Can we have the full details of the lens please?

Is is for example a screw thread Takumar or one of the bayonet Takumar-A lenses?

In either case it will be useable, but if it's a bayonet lens with an "A" on the aperture ring then set it to A and just use it.

You can't undo Drive E because when connected to the computer the camera is allocated a drive letter - in this case E. Just like your hard drive is usually C.

The easiest thing to do is use a card reader, which is cheap, quick and reliable. If it's a multi-slot reader, each slot will also be allocated a drive letter.

In any event, let's remember to offer our opinions with respect for each other and without personal comments creeping in. There's been enough of that.

Contrary views exist and that's fine, without coming to "verbal blows" over it.