I've not heard of that one Gwyn.

My absolute favourite after lunch coffee concoction is Cafe Asiático :-

A tablespoon of condensed milk in the bottom of the glass,
a generous ration of brandy,
an equally generous quantity of liquor 43,
a dash of cinnamon,
that mixture is steam heated and mixed,
then a cafe espresso added, and stirred,
pop in a slice of lemon, and serve.

It's absolutely gorgeous.

Cafe carajillo is more common and is just coffee and brandy. Popular with the Guardia Civil I believe.

Oh, and 2 hour lunch breaks are normal here. Shops and factories close at 2:00PM and re-open again any time between 4:00PM & 5:30PM.

Our longest lunch break to date was at our closest restaurant, La Rata (The Rat) which is about 1Km away from our house. Our lunch started at 01:45PM and finished at 8:30 PM. We had picked a day when a few of the locals, including the restaurant owner, decided to have a bit of a jam session with their guitars, mandolins, etc. It was awesome.

What affects me most, is lunch, I hate it. Today for example, I knew I was having lunch with a friend at 2:00PM and probably finished by 4:00PM.

Before lunch I had decided that, as it's a beautiful day and 26 degrees C outside, I'd take one of my cameras for a walk and try and bag a shot or three of a cuckoo, a hoopoe, or a newly arrived bee eater perhaps.

Fat chance. We finished at 4:15PM and I'm stuffed with huge portions of ensalada, pan, macaroni con salsa de tomate y atun, emperador con salsa verde, crema de almendras, a cafe belmonte and a cafe cortado. All washed down with a nice bottle vino tinto.

I'm more likely to take a siesta than a walk right now.

OK, OK, I don't hate it at all really . . . ZZZzzzzzzzzzzz.

Translation for those interested:-

ensalada = salad
pan = bread
macaroni con salsa de tomate y atun = pasta penne with tomato and tuna sauce
emperador con salsa verde = swordfish with a garlic sauce
crema de almendras = cream of almonds with a caramel base & cream and chocolate sauce on top
cafe belmonte = strong coffee, condensed milk, & brandy (tastes like a hot Baileys)
cafe cortado = strong coffee and hot milk in equal measures
vino tinto = red wine (as if you didn't know).

The price . . . 10€ for a menu del dia (menu of the day).

Perhaps either the K7 or K5 and their 100% viewfinders would 'suit you sir'.

Don't forget that the DA* 55mm 1:1.4 is a SDM only lens. It has no screw drive AF so it'll be an MF lens on older bodies.

Focus looks a bit in front of the Sunday lunch Kris.

I think you might get close to it Gareth, but my wasp nest example was a good 2 - 3cms in depth which would have needed a very small aperture, f32 or smaller, which is well outside the 'sweet spot' of f8 - f16 where most lenses produce their sharpest images.

Using a focussing rail or linear stage is not mandatory, I've seen many images that use this technique with hand held images.

I think a linear stage might be required for very tiny bugs like springtails for instance, but trying to keep 'em still is a whole new ball game.

I put it down as one for my wish list ages ago when somebody posted the question here.

It would be so easy to do in firmware, set your start and end focus points, enter the number of frames you want to divide that distance by, press go. Simples.

That's an interesting use of the technique on a non-macro subject Glynn.

Good job, well executed.

I've used it to stack images of a macro subject and in that case, rather than change the lens focus, I move the whole camera + lens + ringlight on a macro slide rail. Some photographers even use a linear stage with micrometer adjusters to achieve very small but consistent steps.

Here's one I did of a wasp nest to show it's use in macro work, it's made up of 22 images stacked using CombineZM, the predecessor to CombineZP.

Just in time I should think. Isn't your first K5 body about worn out by now.

There's actually nothing I want or need at the moment. If I had money to burn, I might want to switch from Pentax flashes to Metz purely because the Metz ring flash has wireless capabilities that the Pentax AF160FC does not.

I bought a Sigma 150-500mm from SRS before the price dropped again , but I'll not get my hands on it until June. I'm hoping that its going to be a better performer than the Sigma 135-450mm, Pentax K 135-600mm, and the Pentax K 500mm lenses that I have owned, and sold.

When I finally have the 150-500mm in my bag, I have a good mix of primes and zooms from 12mm to 500mm and a 1.7x TC to go with my K10D and two K20D bodies, so my Pentax weaponry will do me for now.

I just wish I had the time to use it all. Retirement's not all it's cracked up to be. I don't know how I ever found time to go to work.