Welcome back. The inspiration will return, I'm sure.

Well spotted and good composition, but what are those odd vertical (left & right side) and horizontal (near the top of the frame) lines?

Well done to all who took part, and to Mike for submitting and judging.

It's surprising how, with a bit of effort, a seemingly 'ordinary' snap can be turned into a much more interesting image.

For me, these shots look over-exposed, soft and lacking in contrast.

Poses are excellent as you'd expect from captive birds.

Very nice series though.

Did you take these with the aperture wide-open by any chance?

I find it almost impossible to see the rear screen in normal daylight, which is one of the reasons I never use Live View.

Assuming the lens used is an AF one, I think AF on centre spot, hold the shutter button half pressed, and recompose the shot is the way to go.

Also, ensure that your dioptre is set correctly. You'll never nail the focussing manually if it isn't.

EG: Remove the lens, replacing it with one of the translucent body caps if you have one. You can alternatively leave the lens on, point the camera at a plain surface like a white wall or blue sky, and de-focus the lens. Adjust the dioptre slider until the framing marks on the focussing screen are pin sharp. Replace the lens if you removed it and try again.

PM replied to with the following:-

The O-ME53 does exactly what it's name suggests, it magnifies the eyepiece/viewfinder image and does help to view any scene, AF or MF. I use them because my primary hobby is macro photography and accurate manual focussing is essential.

I get more keepers now, rather than having to delete blurry OOF images.

There is one potential problem to consider when using one though, and that is if you wear glasses, it's likely that you will not see the entire frame in the viewfinder. I wear glasses, and I can't see the whole view because with my glasses on, my eye is not close enough to the lens of the magnifier. I soon got used to moving my eye in relation to the image I was seeing to get the whole picture, as it were.

That is more of a slight annoyance than a drawback though.

I like using them so much I'm considering buying a third one for my K10D. They really do make a huge difference for manual focus of any lens.

The evidence shows that AE-L most definitely was activated. That is irrefutable. Whether that occurred due to an accidental button push or some other reason, we may never know.

I strongly suggest that if, after your deliberations, you determine that the camera is at fault. Return it to where you bought it for repair or replacement together with the images that illustrate the problem.

I have 2 x K20D's, both fitted with an O-ME53. I get far fewer rejects due to poor manual focussing (MF) since I fitted them.

Magnification is low at 1.2x, but it does make a real difference.

If you seldom use MF it's probably not worth buying. Conversely, if you do a lot of MF work, it's invaluable.

You should be able to pick a used one up for between £20.00 and £25.00.

So then, the bling factor comes to Pentax photography.

I bought Titanium (silver is so last year ) coloured Limited lenses too, but only because there was no other choice at the time.

What does the colour matter, really. K10D Grand Prix bodies in used condition nowadays are worth little more than a normal K10D.

I'm sure the K5 Limited will be the same in a few years.

Time was, you bought a camera to suit your needs, and stuck with it for many years. Not so any more. It seems we've got used to the idea that we must have the latest piece of a-n-other gear, whether we actually need it, or not.

You can edit them, but you can't save in .DNG or .PEF.

They are digital negatives and just like film negatives, apart from physically damaging them, they can't be edited.

Any changes you make can be saved to any one of a number of file formats including .TIF and .JPG.