Of course the K-S1 is quite new, so we haven't seen a mature result yet. Actually, each and every colour of a camera appears to have a discrete listing, which means the Q7 might be the best selling camera in Japan for all we know. This disadvantages cameras with several options, only showing that the statistics are interesting but meaningless.

The other thing we don't know are actual sales figures, and whether or not the top 80 are all very close or all very far apart, so again it doesn't really tell us anything.

I wouldn't use that sort of technique in a forest. There are so many small branches that a camera might lock onto. I tried it and within minutes abandoned it in favour of the centre point only focus. Focus on an area, tweak with manual QuickShift on lenses that have it, and there shouldn't be a problem.

It's similar with wildlife photos, we can pre-focus on the spot and wait for the wildlife, and that comes from watching the pattern of behaviour. So, if a bird constantly revisits a particular branch, we just focus on the spot and wait for the bird.

It's similar with children, they will repeat things, run round the same area, and we can predict up to a point. Also, depth of field outside is not usually so wafer thin that we don't have a bit of leeway. f/8, a high enough ISO to make a decent shutter speed possible and we do have some scope.

Hope those musings help!

It would have given me a delicious sense of mischief to face the world with a Lime Pie K-S1 or even a yellow K-01. It amuses my sense of humour and I have a feeling it might add a smile to the faces of those being photographed. It would certainly be a talking point.

In a sort of similar way, an old time photographer who used a camera with no rangefinder used to use a piece of string to set the correct distance from a subject. He had a clothes peg on the end of it, would clip that to the subject's clothes, walk backwards until he reached the knot in the strong and then pull the peg off with the string. His images were all sharp and his subjects invariably smiled....

I would have been interested to see if a wildly coloured camera could elicit a similar response, I don't reject things out of hand, i think about how they might be used.

When the review camera arrived I was actually disappointed that it was dull, boring black. I had been hoping for Lime Pie at least! It would have been interesting to see if anyone actually noticed when I was out and about.

Price, as always, is flexible and I have no doubt that it will reduce just like everything always does. I agree the lack of weather sealing is a disadvantage, but that equally well applies to other competitor products at this price point.

It was the same with the K-r and K-5. The latter had weather sealing, but I thought the K-r actually had slightly better handling. I had to go for the K-5, just as now I would have to go for the K-3. Whether or not the K-S1 suits an individual is up to them, but the cheap shots of some websites don't really help anyone.

I think it's all a bit odd really, the lights can be switched off if they offend. Why would anybody bother to ridicule it when what we're left with is a perfectly functional high quality camera. That is very far from being rubbish.

I'll kick it off, but as a suggestion, let's all post some HDR images where we think the technique suits the subject.


Not strictly HDR, but made using Photomatix. We start off with the presets and choose the closest to the end result and then do the final tweak in Photoshop.

I think it should be used in moderation Andrew, but any HDR program can be used in a subtle way.

I use Photomatix to make HDR images, but not often, only when the subject suits it. I also use it to make black and white conversions where I'm looking for dramatic, high contrast results.

For me, an HDR image is made up of seven exposures all 1 stop apart, so -3, -2, -1, 0, +1, +2 and +3.

Very impressive!

This a actually very powerful and slightly surreal. I wasn't quite sure what attracted me to the shot, but having looked at it for a long time I've decided it's helped along by the double vanishing point. This is quite subtle, but the sky has a vanishing point, or an origin point, over the water on the top third to the left. The jetty has a vanishing point on the top third to the right, and the two connect via the pole at the end of the jetty. This holds my eye between the two and I think this, coupled with the watercolour-intensity lightness of the image creates a soothing effect holding us within the picture.

I'm glad there are no people in this, as it stands it has a calm peacefulness as it waits for us the enter the scene.