The most universally useful macro lens is probably the 100mm, with the caveat that it always depends upon your specific interests. So, for example, if you copied a lot of documents then you might find a 50mm or even 35mm macro more convenient. But for most other applications the 100mm is better.

For portraits the classic film length is 85mm. Personally I favoured something a little longer and useed a 100mm. On digital the classic would translate into 50 or 55mm, but again I prefer something longer so the 100mm (150mm equivalent) would still suffice.

Having said that, the 18-55mm is fine for portraits and is not so bitingly sharp at wider apertures, so there could be something to be said for it.

The F dates back further than any need to differentiate between full frame and APS-C formats.

As regards sharpness - all macro lenses should be sharp at open aperture and stopping down will really only change DOF. These are very high quality lenses for critical applications. I'm referring here to the Pentax macro lenses.

In the past some lenses for portraiture were designed to be soft wide open but then it became the trend to make them sharp even at open aperture. You could always add a soft focus filter.

Now the possibility exists also to use software such as PortraitProfessional8 to soften portraits - used with restraint this can be very effective.

A Bridge Camera with K mount interchangeable lenses would be an interesting beast.

There was a feeling that nobody should be demoted by the change, so Veteran had to stay and became Site Veteran.

The trouble of course is that we could debate how many titles, how many posts and what titles for ever and there would never be 100% agreement.

It's not meant to be taken too seriously, but quite a few people had asked for such a change, so there it is.

Over at ADAPS we just started off with a set of titles and eventually there you become Photographer and then Master Photographer and finally Iconic Photographer. And you don't even have to shoot a single image to achieve those dizzy heights!

A final thought before you make a Report. Have you checked your Cookies settings? If you specifically "allow" Pentax user that might help.

OK, I think we've exhausted the possibilities. If you could summarise the info into a Report then IT will deal with it on Monday. Please tell them as much as possible about what you use and how the problem happens.

Thanks!

The next question then is which browser? This is a different problem where a website may bahve perfectly with one but not another web browser.

I seem to have no problems with IE6, IE7 and Firefox 3 - I think the Pentax IT dept use FF3 - are you using one of these or something else?

Probably the biggest optical problem with filters will be flare. We are putting a flat pice of glass quite a way forwards of the front element, so the effect of a lenshood will be reduced, and the filter may not be coated as effectively as an SMC lens.

At one time Pentax produced a "Ghostless" filter for the 50mm Takumar lens that had the same curvature as the front element of the lens. The theory of this is that godting would be reduced. It never caught on, presumably becayuuse every lens would then need its specific filters in every filter type....that would indeed be a nightmare.

Yes, high key really refers to the lighting style, Lots of light tones and not many dark ones.

The opposite, low key, brings to mind male portraits deep with shadows and with black backgrounds.

Portraits are just an easy example though, and for still life you could have a light, airy subect that's lit accordingly that would be just as much high key.

And is this still happening, because it's stopped being so random for me. Some work has been done very recently to correct these problems.

It may be that your temporary internet files need clearing so any pages are removed from the computer's cache.