Decorations down on Wednesday here. But they don't go up until a week before Christmas. That way, we're not fed up with them before the Big Day and the real tree doesn't have as much chance to drop its needles before it has to come down. When the tree goes, I always miss the quiet flashing in the corner of the room.

Steve

Agree with Sry

Steve

Still watering the Christmas tree. Never had one that's sucked up so much water. Hardly any needle drop, though, even though it's a traditional Norwegian spruce, not one of those new-fangled fancy types.

Steve

Makes you wonder what was on his mind. Impossible to rate the picture as a picture, it would feel like giving an opinion on the person. I hope he eventually found a reason to smile.

Steve

When I was young, my father would say "When you're my age, son, you'll see things my way". One of the great days of teenage life was when I realised that there were people of his age who didn't see things his way. Then I went to university and discovered that fact and truth can be elusive, much so-called 'fact' is really only opinion or 'best guess so far' and if anything really matters it is worth questioning, checking and seeing whether it stands up to sceptical scrutiny. In later life, I realised that this was a minority view and I would just have to get on with living with people who didn't see things my way...

Make of that what you will.

Steve

You don't say which version of the lens you have. It is important re the point Chrism8 makes about putting the camera into manual focus as well as the lens.

For one of the versions (the DA L version), putting the camera into manual focus is essential if you want to focus manually. If that isn't done, the focus ring remains coupled to the focus motor in the camera so turning the focus ring means you'll be trying to turn the motor which produces a fair bit of resistance (as well as not being very good for the camera).

The other versions of the lens have a clutch that decouples the focus ring from the focus motor when the ring is turned. The ring can then be turned freely and without significant resistance whatever is set on the camera (it's called 'quick shift' in Pentax jargon and is very useful for quickly tweaking focus if auto fucus doesn't quite get it right). If you have one of those versions of the lens (i.e. not DA L), any significant resistance when turning the focus ring, whether the camera is set to auto or manual focus, is a bad sign.

Good luck.

Steve

A very happy new year from me, too.

And for those who may be wondering...
... I did break open the bottle. And it was very good indeed.

Steve

Now that's an interesting possibility...

Steve

Not just me then...

A quick trip to a bed shop yesterday to order a bed before going into a tier in which non-essential shops are closed. Turns out there was no need to rush, we're going into Tier 3 so the shop will still be open. Delivery in 3 months, plenty of time to reach Tier 8 ('Stay in bed' order) and get back down again.

No celebrating in pubs for me, never have enjoyed such places on New Year's Eve and similar. But a dose of Glenlivet (Christmas present from Mrs L) tomorrow night seems justified.

Steve

If you only use a DSLR in live view mode, haven't you got a K-mount mirrorless camera with the added extra of optical viewfinder mode if you feel the urge to go retro? Perhaps all that is needed is for the default mode to be live view (mirror up when camera is switched on, press a button to get optical viewfinder mode). Possibly as simple as a firmware update. No money to be made from that, of course, so there would need to be a few cheap, cosmetic design changes and launch as a new model

Steve