Nice photos. Rich colours. Are they HDR?

I'd say it's too dark, as well.

Assessing brightness by eye is a big problem on computers as screens often have big variations in brightness between each other.

Does PS CS3 not have a 'motion blur' filter? Gimp does. It applies a linear (motion) or radial (zoom) blur to a section or all of a picture quite realistically.

I've just spotted this while browsing the www.amazon.co.uk site:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000FGNM6I/ref=s9_asin_image_3/203-9460807-0174332?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-4&pf_rd_r=0XCT388FQNWCNRV6B47N&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=139289091&pf_rd_i=468294

It's a 2GB SD card for a gnats over £6.00. (1GB is £2.50)

I think that's a bargain.

When I bought my first 1GB disk drive some years ago, it cost me over £750, and I remember telling my wife that it would be all I'd need for a good long while...

And now look at where we are.

SD cards at confetti prices!

Fill one up and buy another one. They're a practical, cheap backup medium now.

That's the way to do it. 00:15 and all done and dusted.

Well done Lilly and well done Niblue.

The competition does seem to be dragging lurkers out into the light. Several this week with no previous offences.

Geek info
Model PENTAX *ist D
Exposure Time 1/500 sec.
FNumber f/9.5
ISO Speed Ratings 200
Focal Length 240.0 mm

Capacity, price and availabiliy of xD falls somewhat short of SD.

The largest xD I've found is 2GB. The largest SD is 8GB.

The price of a 2GB xD card is the same as a 4GB SD card.

My normal supplier has 24 different SD cards - all but one in stock. They have five xD cards of which four are ordered to requirement.

On top of that, I know of no device other than Fuji cameras that use xD cards and no other manufacturers of xD cards than Fuji.

I'm not knocking them technically, I just don't see they have a future.

And, as John says, some of their latest cameras are either dual format or just CF.

The BIG disadvantage of Fuji is the poorly supported xd memory card. My laptop has a built-in SD card slot and I have a tiny USB SD card reader that I use other times. All my other cameras are either SD or CF. Were it not for that, I'd take a good look at the Fujis.

I've used a number of compacts in recent years including Sony (spit!), Canon, Casio and Pentax but, after quite a lot of research, I have just this week bought a Casio Exilim Z850. The key considerations for me were: SD card, 8Mp+, 3x+ zoom, manual exposure controls (that limits the list somewhat), <£180, control over image quality and good reviews.

I've only tinkered with it so far but I'm quite impressed.

That will replace the Optio S5i as my take-everywhere camera.

That's vignetting and I've also discovered that the 18-55 is particularly bad in that respect at wide angles.

I'm not sure something resembling Trumpton would cut it.