I think the owl business is getting a bit clichéd now, but best owl/ring/wedding video I've seen (but can't now find a link to) involved the owl sweeping along the aisle between the seated guests before flying up into the rafters and staying there (with the ring) despite bribes, threats, abuse, etc!

Hope 'your' event goes more to plan

SRS have them

Seems that in the RC model world they have big problems with their LiPo batteries and buy LIPo Safe bags for when they are charging, transporting them, etc. The bags aren't expensive and seem to be flame retardant, so if anyone's concerned about all this could be worth a look?

What an unfortunate time you've had. Let's hope things go better for you moving forward.

If I were in your shoes and trying to decide which lens to buy first I'd review the exif data of my photo library to determine what focal length I'd used most previously and start there.

If I were considering something better than the kit lens but similar range to the Sigma 17-70 I would look at the Pentax 16-45. Bit shorter than the Sigma but I found the IQ of the one I had to 'replace' my kit lens (which I never used) was very good for the money.

Take a look here>link

Might be something in it that you can adopt?

There is a least one comparative review out there on the Internet. HD comes out a little better in some respects, but not all.

One of the lenses compared was the 15 Ltd; the original won points in the test because of it's nice starburst flare whereas the HD version 'controlled' flare better but lost the character of the lens in the process.

I've read about use of a small spray of electrical contact cleaner being used to remedy this? I know it's a problem that's been aired here and on the US forum from time to time.

Also, another suggestion that was reported as working was simply to operate the dial backwards and forwards for a few minutes - yes minutes!

If you're talking about 11mb images, yes that's correct, but it depends on what size images you take on your camera as to how many will actually fit. Do you know your average JPEG file size?

Also, you mention DVD. They'll take many more images than a CD would. Why not use DVDs? The same software will burn to CD as well as DVD, assuming you have a DVD burner in your PC, which I presume you do from you saying 'Only when doing a DVD for someone...'

Have you got, or have you considered an external hard drive, one that plugs into a USB port on your computer?

Have you burnt CD's before on your machine? Music maybe? Did it all go ok?

Are you trying to burn too many photos to a CD?

They (CD's) have a maximum capacity of around 700mb of data. That could easily be only around 60-70 High Res JPEGs, certainly on my K5II.

The CD burner software in Windows 7 is fine for what you're wanting to do by the way. Look first to whether you're trying to put too many photos on to a CD.

You say also that you usually get 100-200 images on a CD. How have you done that if you're now saying you can't? Was it a different computer?

Lastly, don't worry about the 'Please calibrate..' message. That's here on the Forum pages and is only to help you get the brightness sorted on your monitor. It doesn't affect your ability to burn to CD. Come back to that in another thread!

No problem. Come back if there's an issue.