Galoot -

Nice to see your art collection. Is that an original Matisse at the top? And a Klee, perhaps? Still, my favourite is "A Cat Catching A Mouse", artist unknown.

Jonathan

I recently bought a Giotto's tripod & head, and am very very impressed with them. I know that Giotto's are currently changing UK distributor (now available through Daymen International who distributed Manfrotto until recently) so a new range should be available pretty soon. I got the MT9351, one of the discontinued range, at a very good price - the new version of this tripod is the MTL9351B (see www.giottos-tripods.co.uk)

Anyway, it's a fabulous tripod with great build quality, a centre column that can be used upside down, horizontally or at any other angle. If you remove the centre column it can be used without a head if necessary, plus it goes pretty low to the ground. It's probably closest to the Manfrotto 190XPROB, but feels sturdier. It has interchangeable 1/4" and 3/8" connections for mounting a head, plus it came with a padded strap & a bag included, & it has built in spikes if you remove the rubber feet - you have to pay extra for these things from some other manufacturers.

All in all I'm very pleased with it, and the head I bought (the MH7001-621)is also highly recommended.

Jonathan

A nest of spiderlings, taken in my backyard with a Z-1p, Tamron lens & extension tubes (on Fuji Astia, I think).


Jonathan

For processing images with tricky WB in Silkypix, see:

https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7242

This is a tip for using the skin tool, so it's only useful if you're photographing people.

Jonathan

Traffic, M25 anticlockwise direction (not driving!)

Taken on a K100D with 43mm lens, long exposure

There have been a couple of recent magazine reviews of Silkypix (AP and Digital Photo Pro), and one of these was particularly timely for me in that it mentioned a tool I'd not used properly before (just when I needed it).

I had been processing a batch of pictures taken in mixed lighting conditions (fluorescent/tungsten & fluorescent/daylight) and had been struggling to get the WB spot on, especially as colour temperature changed quite dramatically depending on where in the room people had been standing. I was getting OK results after lots of fiddling with the Colour Temp & Colour Deflection sliders, but it was tricky. I'd previously tried the Skin tool but not really got on with it (clicking to apply Skin balance at a certain point in the image), but one of the reviews pointed out a way of using it that I'd overlooked. If you go into the WB palette and activate the tool from there (rather than right-clicking) you can then drag a box round a portion of skin that contains a range of tones, and this gave me great results straight away, eliminating any colour casts. This way of using the tool improves on single clicking where results are a bit hit or miss depending on exactly where on the skin you click.

Hope this is useful for anyone else who didn't realise how useful this tool can be.

Jonathan

I have the constant aperture f/3.5 version of this lens, and I think it's a fantastic lens. I've used it on film and on digital (where it's only weak point is perhaps some fringing at points of extreme high contrast - but then again I use it almost exclusively wide open for theatre photography, and stopping down should help with this). It's a very sharp lens, even wide open.

I got it for the equivalent of £60 (swapped for another lens) a couple of years ago, and that's seemed like a bit of a bargain at about a tenth of the price that you'd get a Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 lens new at the moment (2/3 of a stop slower and no AF, but you can't have everything...)

I seem to recall that Tamron did a 70-200 f/2.8 at that time, but I might be wrong on that.

Jonathan

For a review of the 18-250mm go to www.photozone.de

And interesting to see that two of the first four lens reviews at good old dpreview are Pentax lenses...

Jonathan

Mosquitoes over the river Wensum.

Taken with a Pentax ME & Fuji film, I think.

Jonathan

Hi Kubrick,

Firstly, yes you're probably right about the flash not reducing its output when you adjust the film speed setting - that setting is often a sliding scale which simply tells you the aperture to set on the camera. I'm lucky enough to have one flash that does change its output as you adjust the ISO setting, but other flashes (such as the Pentax AF280T) operate the same way yours does.

As Matt says, you should be able to set a shutter speed below 1/125th if you are in manual mode - try setting the shutter speed to 1/60th & see if the flash will fire without the shutter speed being forced to 1/125th by the flash. This method works with an AF280T on a K100D (though I think, from memory, it'll change the shutter speed to the sync speed in aperture priority mode).

I don't know if it's possible to convert a dedicated flashgun into a non-dedicated one by covering up certain contacts - can anyone advise on that?

Jonathan