Good pictures, a good read and a very worthwhile project. Thank you for brightening up my morning!

Steve

Portraits ain't my thing, and I know next to nothing about lighting, poses etc., but from these pictures alone you look to be well up the learning curve already.

To be really picky, in the first one the softening effect at the corners protrudes too much onto the face for my liking, but that's just a matter of personal taste. In the second there's a slight bright area above her left eye and bright spot on the end of her nose that stand out a bit too much for me, although others might think otherwise and it might be my screen.

The back injury must be a pain in all respects, but good on you for grasping the opportunity it gives for doing something different.

Steve

The stripey field has sprouted and from some angles is showing interesting and almost abstract patterns. A dog-walk experiment with the DA35 macro on a Q produced lots of failures but one half-decent shot of the patterns. The undivided picture didn't quite work for me, but splitting it did. See what you think of these. They are the top and bottom (with some overlap) of one shot.

Thoughts, comments etc. welcome as usual.

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Steve

A contact is just a bit of metal. Try a dry microfibre cloth to start with. For more stubborn muck, anything that will remove greasy deposits (e.g. finger marks), won't damage anything and won't leave a deposit behind (so no household 'clean and shine' products then :wink. Some people use isopropyl alcohol on a cloth or cotton bud. Nikon say "We recommend cleaning the CPU contacts on both the lens and camera body with a photographic cleaning tissue wrapped on a small wooden stick (such as a chopstick). A general cleaning fluid such as a surgical spirit is recommended. Wipe the cleaning tissue slowly across the contacts a few times until they look clean.".

Just make sure that any liquid you use doesn't get anywhere it shouldn't, such as inside the camera or on a weather-resistant seal. And don't do it in a dusty place or you'll need to clean the sensor next!

Another thought - does autofocus work with screw drive lenses? I've been assuming that contacts might be the cause because you mentioned the 16-85 which has the AF motor in the lens. But if screw drive AF doesn't work (i.e. you can't hear it working rather than it tries but can't find focus), that would indicate a problem in the camera body rather than just contacts.

Good luck.

Steve

Dirty contacts (lens or body)? Battery not as good as it used to be? Dirty battery contacts?

Steve

You're right - I discovered it about an hour ago.

If one hand wasn't holding a lead with a dog at the end... . I took the Q + adapter + DA 35mm macro on today's walk, that being f2.8 and about middle of the 06 zoom range. An interesting experience, but showing promise. And it did fit into a large pocket!

Steve

Decisions, decisions...........made at last. Or perhaps avoiding a decision by covering all options.

SRS is finding out whether the Q 06 is repairable in principle, however the repairers don't seem to be working at the moment . Hopefully, the Q 06 will turn out to be repairable at a credible price. I'll let you all know the answer, so fellow sufferers can decide what to do.

In the meantime, I've bitten the bullet and now own a Q-K adapter, the Pentax one. Not cheap, but a nice bit of engineering. Now to master manual focus without perfect eyesight...

Steve

Thanks. It does take a bit of getting used to, but I'm no longer surprised when it produces a good picture.

Steve

Last week, the FA77 ltd (which is widely believed to be sublime) accompanied me on a mission to photograph hawthorn during the daily dog walk. A couple of days later, the Q-S1 + 03 fisheye came with the same objective. The 03 is, of course, a very different lens - less than 1/10th the price of an FA77, plastic, fixed aperture (f5.6), 173 degree field of view (on Q-S1), manual focus, minimum focus distance of about 1 inch, but no focus scale, just uncalibrated ticks that you've got to work out for yourself. As for technique, you soon get used to guessing how many inches there are between lens and subject...

So if the FA77 is sublime, is the 03 ridiculous? You be the judge of that. Here are some shots of hawthorn flowers (and a buttercup for good measure) to help you decide...

Thoughts, comments etc. welcome as usual.

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Steve

Agree. The picture needs all its twizzly bits and height rather than width.

Steve