Be guided by what William Morris would have said if he had been a photographer: "Have no lens in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."

Steve

If you haven't done it already, how about using your photographic project as a subject - didn't the act of photographing the allotment benefit your mental health? Some scope for photographic equipment among the vegetables? (I'm not suggesting a selfie in a plot of cabbages! )

Steve

More variety needed? Perhaps the assessors have been watching Rankin on TV...

Seriously, though, you're almost there so keep at it and it will happen. As for doing other things, might it help to view 'more variety' as a challenge to get out and do something new photographically while waiting for the next assessment?

Good luck!

Steve

Nicely done. And much more interesting than the helicopters (police, air ambulance, coastguard ...) that disturb the peace around here.

Steve

Me too. At the moment, I'd rather spend the money on going somewhere at the right time of year to do some of the sort of photography I like to do. But still too much uncertainty to book anything.

As for new owners posting about the K3 III, this seems to be the sort of forum where you'll get helpful answers if you ask a question but few posts of the 'look at what my new toy can do' type (which is the way I like it ). Perhaps if someone asked a specific question about the K3 III, there would be lots of answers from new owners.

Snappyhoffy - It's good to hear that photography helped keep you 'sane' during the 'madness'. Your new camera is well deserved!

Steve

Steve

If you believe that there is a design fault that has resulted in the power button no longer working, then legally you have 6 years from date of purchase to make a claim against the retailer. But as it is now beyond 6 months from date of purchase, the onus is on you to prove that there was a design fault and that this has lead to a failure in an an unreasonably short time (for the type of product). You might be able to argue on the basis of low usage (using number of shutter actuations as evidence), your friend's experience of their camera fault (documentation would be needed) and evidence of your camera having been used carefully (from its overall condition).

As you have found, different retailers have different policies for dealing with customer complaints about a product. Amazon is big enough to take the hit - it's probably cheaper than employing someone to argue about it.

Good luck.

Steve

Yes, a field monitor would do the job, too. It's probably the most convenient option for macro 'in the field' (smaller, mountable on tripod etc.). I chose the laptop route because it was cheaper (having already got the laptop) and would only be used for 'table-top' macro.

Worth noting that for both field monitor and laptop, the maximum image resolution is determined by the HDMI output from the camera. That is less than the sensor resolution. So don't expect to be able to focus at the level of individual sensor pixels!

Steve

Almost certainly, yes . And it won't cost an arm and a leg . It's the method I used for my 'penny macro' attempts with the K3. My only doubt is because I don't have a K5 so can't be sure about what outputs the K5 has.

What you need is a USB video capture card. If the K5 has HDMI output, then you need a USB HDMI video capture card. (If the K5 only has AV (analogue) output, then you need a USB AV video output card instead.) The HDMI 'card' is actually a little black box with an HDMI socket at input and a USB cable/plug to connect to your laptop. The HDMI video capture card I've got is this one from Amazon - costs £15-99 (which is less than what I paid... ). You'll also need to get an HDMI cable with the right connectors to join the K5 to the HDMI input socket in the 'card'.

You'll need software to display the image on your laptop. OBS Studio does everything you need (and a lot, lot more...). And it has the great virtue of being free.

If the K5 has AV (analogue) but not HDMI output, PM me and I'll send details of the RCA video capture card that I've got.

Incidentally, if your laptop has an HDMI socket, it probably won't be any help here as it is probably designed to send to an external monitor rather than to receive from an external source.

Steve

No.1 works for me, too - the composition and fishy effect seem to work well together, there's a nice flow from front left to the lighthouse at far right.

The last one is my pick of the bunch for the lighthouse tucked away and hanging on the edge of the land with nothing but the vast sea beyond.

No. 2 is an interesting idea but doesn't quite work for me, the composition doesn't have the flow from foreground to distance that's present in No. 1. There's also a distracting blurred line along the out of focus cliff edges, no doubt a product of the lens but once noticed my eye keeps being drawn to it.

Steve

Steve

Well, did you manage it? Or are you currently suffering the "or..."?

Steve