Thanks everyone.

Hi all,

I have never done a focus-stacked image but it's something I'd like to try in the future. I understand the theory and it occurred to me that my K-3 has some functionality which allows various images to be combined and this may allow me to focus stack in camera. Is that possible? Which image combination mode would I need to use?

Many thanks

It could have been a lot worse....

I had the EX DF 28-70mm f/2.8 for a while and was not at all impressed. Huge and very heavy it was de-centred and produced poor images. After a short time it spontaneously (no knocks, no drops, just sitting in the cupboard) developed very stiff focusing under 3m, too stiff for any focus motor to shift it.

Not all will be like that of course but Sigma build quality and quality control was not always at the standard it is today.

I'm with you on the APS-C flagship. I hope my K-3 will last a good few years yet and if something happened to it I'd get a used one before I bought a K-P or K70, even though they're newer. However, some day I will want to upgrade and I have too many great APS-C lenses that I love for it to be viable to go FF, so I certainly hope that Pentax continue with an APS-C flagship. There's still plenty of money to be made in APS-C.

People come and go, especially on photography forums. Forums often feed LBA and LBA often leads to system changing even if only because the grass always seems greener on the other side.

Great price for a very good lens, even if it has seen better days. I'd buy it if I didn't already have one (in significantly better condition).

I haven't owned the PLM, but the older 55-300mm is significantly better than the 50-200 (I have the WR version) and I believe the PLM version is better still. The 55-300 is bigger and heavier though, so I can understand you may not want to travel with it, and for 25 quid it's a bargain.

For my part, I bought a Cullman tripod strap which I hope will be a lot more comfortable than the crappy case with strap I currently use to carry my tripod around.

Hi all,

I know it's March (already!!) but I've been very busy over the last few months and photography has had to take a back seat, especially when it comes to backing up, organising, post-processing... And my film stuff is even worse with a huge backlog of processing and scanning.

However, I decided to select a few shots to represent my 2018. After 2017, which was very eventful and provided plenty of scope for photography, last year was relatively low key, though with some key highlights - a trip to Italy in January, a hot-air balloon festival in Segovia, Spain in the summer and not least, the birth of my daughter, Mara, in late November and a full eight weeks earlier than due, spending a month in hospital. I think you can figure out why I've had little spare time...

There were a few other trips - Edinburgh, Asturias, Bilbao - which gave me some photographic release too.

Not all of these were shot on Pentax gear, but most were. Unfortunately there are no film shots here as the only ones I've got as far as scanning, I'm not entirely happy with, so I've stuck to digital. I haven't fully organised or processed so these may well not be my best of the year, but they're what's available.



Florence panorama 2 by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr



ITLY4509_1 by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr



ITLY3981_1 by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr



Balloon panorama 1 by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr



Panorama 6a by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr



Early sun by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr



Asturian coast by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr



Bilbao by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr



El Atazar panorama 2a by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr



Window light by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr



Boots by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr



Mara by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr

I usually have the most important images transferred via wifi to my phone anyway, so backing up is less of a problem. Certainly it's not a reason against using large capacity cards.