Be that as it may, to take up the point about firmware updates. Most of these have been to add features that support the new DA* lenses, which I would have thought was a good thing, not a negative.

At the same time it does give the opportunity to improve any other features that can be improved. One of the good things is that when you buy a camera you're not stuck with any foibles it has for evermore.

Perhaps there's been no further development on the Nikon D50, or perhaps the person who made the comment just hasn't noticed.

"In rare cases, the camera may not operate correctly due to static electricity. This can be remedied by taking the batteries out and putting them in again......After the procedure is done, if the camera operates correctly, it does not require any repairs."

(K10D manual, page 220)

I don't think you can do that without some additional software. Do a search on this forum because I'm pretty sure someone has at some time posted the solution to your query.

Well done to all that entered, also to ChrisA for an impressive assessment and of course to Daniel our well deserved winner.

If Daniel would now like to start the new thread for this week, hopefully the set up is well understood by now.

The competition for this week has now closed and we await ChrisA's deliberations with keen interest.

Only that there is no correlation between size of the programs and the costs.

As it's usual to stop down when shooting macro to fairly small apertures the quality from close up lenses (which just screw into the filter thread on the front of the lens) should be very good indeed.

If you become totally enthralled by macro then you can always buy a dedicated macro lens later when the budget allows.

Welcome to the forum, which I hope you will find helpful. Please only post messages in one thread to avoid confusion - thanks.

1. The SMC Pentax-DA 50-200mm is a fantastic lens and is a very modest price. The Schneider version for Samsung is identical and can be bought from Jacobs for around £50. This is well within your budget.

2. JPEG settings should be best quality and if you leave the values at default settings that will be fine. Sharpening should be done in an imaging program such as Photoshop as the last stage - this will give best results. You can always change the JPEG settings later after you've got used to the camera and know how you like your images to look.

3. Buy the Schneider lens and then some 52mm close up lenses that will fit both your lenses and enable even closer focus. Not expensive, perfectly good results and well within the £100 budget.

Hope that helps.

Interesting. I usually use a black background for mounting prints and also for ePHOTOzine, but here on the forum I just accepted what was here and didn't really find a problem.

Not sure about this one, what do others think?

George, we understand your pain...

All accidents are regrettable, but insurance helps. Frankly, though, once a camera has been damaged and repaired I'm always a bit unhappy with it after that. It may not be logical, but that's the way it is.

I always make a bit of a stir at National Trust properties when they ask me to leave my bag at the entrance. "No" doesn't seem to be the expected answer...You see. once the kit has been out of my possession I don't know what might have happened to it...

Paranoid or sensible?

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