Whilst there is no doubt that the sales of film will reduce, and the sales of film cameras may well plummet, the runmours of the death of film are greatly exagerrated.

There is a place in our phtotgraphy for film and digital, depending on the final use of the pictures, and at the moment digital is winning for producing eBay pictures and Powerpoint photographic lectures and film is winning for landscape and architectural shots.

As regards pricing, its a wonderful world of bargains out there!

We are using the 890 (A4) and the 1290s (A3) and both give excellent results.

A macro converter is typically a 2x converter that doubles the focal length of a lens, so it has perhaps up to 7 elements on its construction. As it magnifies the image it will also magnify abberations in the main lens, as well as having defects of its own. However, as the minimum focus distance remains unchanged it enables close ups to be made. A macro converter also has some form of helical focusing of its own to enable true macro to be undertaken.

It works, but quality may suffer.

Close up lenses (filters) are cheap and cheerful, need no exposure increase but do need the lens to be well stopped down for best results.

Macro lenses are expensive but excellent and offer the flat field necessary for close ups of flat subjects such as documents.

Extension tubes need an increase in exposure but work very well by moving the lens further away from the camera so it can focus closer. Optical quality is not compromised. If you want meter linkages to work, buy automatic tubes.

A bellows unit works in much the same way as extension tubes and gives greater magnification but is more unwieldy.

Some zoom lenses offer a macro setting, but this rarely gives more than 1:4 magnification (a 1 cm long subject will be 0.25 cm on the film) and the quality varies.

Finally, putting a reversed 28mm lens in front of a standard lens and connecting them via a reversing ring will give very high magnification and good results. (Not a f1.4 standard lens, though!)

When the times quoted are different for 35mm and medium format it reflects the fact that usually 35mm is printed using a condenser enlarger and 120 using a diffused light source. If diffused. the contrast will be lower so a little extra development can improve matters. Of course, this may well not be true and I use condenser enlargers for both formats.

As you get to know your materials you can adjust your development time to suit your own particular way of working. So, for example, if you find that giving 10% longer development gives you better negatives, then that is the right thing to do.

I am of the opinion that the best results will be obtained by using genuine Pentax lenses, if possible with the dedicated Pentax lens hood.

Other makes may or may not be satisfactory and I have always regretted buying them. I don't any more!

I'm pleased that it worked out well!

The Pentax 100mm f3.5 Macro uses a configration of 5 elements in four groups, similar or identical to the 100mm f4 lenses that have been sold since the Spotmatic days.

The quality you can obtain from this is very high indeed, coupled with a flat field (necessary for copying of flat subjects such as documents) and very low distortion (straight lines remain straight even at the frame edges)

The front element is also deeply recessed, removing the need for a lens hood unless filters are attached.

The lens is excellent for close up work, portraiture and landscape phtography and, despite its plasticky feel it seems solidly made and I have been very pleased with the results.

I hope you won't feel too discouraged - there is a lot to absorb about photography and it takes time and practice. At our camera club (ADAPS) we have lots of excellent digital photographers who know very little about photography in the traditional sense. We are running a new set of beginners digital nights, and I have been including in that some snippets of pure photographic theory (depth of field, hyperfocal distance, perspective, etc.) and hopefully this will enhance their knowledge. It's worth working at, as it will help to develop the means by which you can take the pictures you want to and improve your expression in those images. You end up making photographs instead of just taking photographs!

But most of all, enjoy the process!

The ME Super was a camera of choice in its day and, yes, the shutter buttons were revolutionary. The camera performed extremely well, delivering shutter speeds of a new standard of accuracy right up to 1/2000 sec. The silvered pentaprism gave a superb bright view. The camera was small, light and remains today a very useable high quality instrument.

You will get better absolute quality than with any digital camera at any size, but assuming you use fine grain film and high quality processing. For the best results, use fine grain black and white film and process and print yourself. Or Fuji Velvia and make stunning colour transparencies!