One thing to think about - although new macro lenses such as the Tamron 90 (excellent lens by the way) will provide you with AF, it is likely to be far too slow for quick street photographs. In fact, I'm not convinced that AF is really such an important must have for macro lenses.

I guess I'm sort of saying that some lenses tend to be particularly good at one thing more than others - and a lens which is optimised for macro will not necessarily be the first one to choose for quick street photographs. They can make a good portrait lens though (but the Tamron is considered by some to be so sharp that portraits can be rather unflattering!).

The best 70mm option which focuses quickly is the DA70 Ltd, if you can find one at a price you can live with. You could always buy that and a set of extension tubes to start off with.... Otherwise, buy the DA70 and try and track down an old Tamron/Vivitar/Kiron macro lens (they're all good).

Thanks Daniel - will have a look over the weekend.

The seller (on Ebay) has been very good actually and is happy to give a full refund. But I want to see if there's something obvious and minor that I can check visually first, before having to track down another one.

Cheers,

Jon

I think the wider aperture and possibly better bokeh mean the 77 is an ideal portrait lens - possibly more suited to this than the 70? Stopped down outdoors I suspect that it would be very hard to tell much difference between them when viewing at normal sizes (but the 77 feels wonderful!). The 70 certainly focuses much faster if that is an issue.

Hi - recently got a PKA adapter and it is not stopping down my adaptall lens properly - so the more I want to stop the lens down, the more overexposure I get. All seems OK up to about f5.6, and then things go down hill. It gives up stopping down by around f11.

I have two of these adapters, and the lens works fine with my other one, so I'm assuming this is an issue with the adapter and not with the lens.

Has anyone else experienced this, and if so, any hints on how to get it sorted? Thought I'd ask before deciding whether to return to the seller.

Cheers,

Jon

Some lessons about this malware - I have successfully removed it from one of our computers (my daughter's, and I suspect it came via Facebook or something similar).

First, it is vicious, and does nasty things to your registry and internet explorer options. You will probably need to go into safe mode in order to start work to get rid of it.

I found that downloading and using two programmes did the job for me. Both are free. I used them in this order:

(1) superantispyware
(2) malwarebytes

After these, I then did a full scan with our normal anti virus software,

This process takes several hours - be warned!

Finally, I found that the only reason I could do all of the above was because our infected computer had a spare account name that I had set up , but which was rarely used - Security Essentials had not infected that account, so I could do all my downloading and malware removal from there.

So the big lesson for me if you use a PC - set up a spare account with admin rights for emergency use, and don't use it unless you get into this type of trouble.... it may just help you dig your way out of a big hole.

Hope you manage to get your computer sorted.

As the K200D is a perfectly capable and nicely made camera with weather sealing added in for good measure, I would go for your cheapest option - it's capable of excellent results.

K10D is a great camera, but the K200D has the same sensor so the difference is more about handling and bulk (the K10D is more driven by buttons on the body rather than going into menus, and is also larger and heavier) as both should be able to produce similar image quality (the K200D may actually be a little more pleasing "out of the box").

The Km is a great little camera but I'd struggle to pay a lot more for it when the K200D actually offers more functionality and better build quality.

I'd second Kris' comment - monopods are a great buy, even relatively cheap ones (mine is a Manfrotto Modo and does the job well-enough). It also accompanies me on trips to the States - it's light and does not take up much space.

Sorry for stretching the rules guys - as Huw and Stefan noted, I was just trying to show that even PSE can do a pretty decent job with stitching.

Now one thing Pentax could learn from my little Canon is to incorporate a panoramic mode that freezes the exposure and helps you to frame your shots accurately using the live view.....

Will try never to mention Canon again (does it help if I say that I always consider them to be a competent manufacturer of compact point and shoots?)

Here's a couple taken around Dulwich woods, using Canon G10 and stitched together using photomerge in Photoshop Elements (dead easy):

Pretty good given they're handheld! Have a search for a blog article by Marc Sabatella too. He's a Pentax owner who has posted an extensive review of the Vivitar (aka Samyang and all the other brands that means) 500mm, with some comments on how to get the best out of it.

One thing worth experimenting with the Tamron - it does quite well as a close up lens. This one was handheld at 1/125 second:





Another one, this time 1/250 second. Don't listen to people who tell you can't get decent shots from a decent mirror lens. They simply haven't learned how to use them properly!





Have fun over the weekend trying yours out some more!

Jon