John, my complaint is not about wasted space, it's about occasionally having to wade through endless 'Hi and Welcome' messages, one after the other, page after page.

Rather than see the posts in this thread as wasted space, see them as a measure of the feelings of some of us that spend a lot of time here.

I logged in this morning to see two pages of cut and pasted welcome messages from JudithAnn. It's ridiculous. 21 posts to welcome new members at one sitting, yet not much else from her.

In the past I have designed databases for a living so I do know how easy it would be to at least put all these posts at the end of the list instead of at the top.

My personal preference is to get rid of them all together.

All posts were made by cut & paste; and without cut & paste was not anything pasted that was cut. Pedro 1:1 (Life)
I ponder this as I browse this forum I spend so much time in.

Evenings are getting very cold here, down to about 4 or 5 degrees last night. My house is at about 360 metres above sea level so a bit colder than the coast.

Thanks JudithAnn for cluttering up the forum.

I suppose it does demonstrate to the rest of us that you've clearly mastered the art of Cut and Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste, Paste.

A lovely sunny 14 here today but it rained all day yesterday, dawn 'til dusk, and then some.

I'd keep it as a future museum piece, unexposed.

Why do we have to clutter this forum with welcome messages, especially when the user being welcomed hasn't even logged in for some considerable time.

I almost exclusively use the 'New Posts' method of viewing posts and I find it very frustrating when another member has logged in purely to create a whole raft of welcome messages bringing old posts back into the new posts category.

A number of members only seem to login to post welcome messages by the bucket load.

My suggestion is to post welcome messages in the users gallery, thus removing them from otherwise interesting topics.

Another suggestion to those users that log in only to welcome newcomers is:- "Please log in more frequently and welcome fewer new users at one sitting", then we won't get so many old posts as new.

Rant over.

I think the CA that you show may be due to the filter. Retake the shot without it.

I think also that your HDR software is not behaving properly. If you look at the spans of the bridge in the last shot you posted, there appears to be multiple images superimposed.

How many images did you use for the HDR?
Which software did you use?
Did you change focus point or move the tripod between shots?

Try this:- Take the image that was correctly exposed and make JPG's from that one image that differ by 1 stop from each other (-4 to +4 exposure compensation, 9 images in all). Put those images through your HDR software and see what happens.

By using only one image you guarantee that nothing has moved in the image. If you still see some images superimposed, your HDR software isn't working properly. If you don't see them, there is some movement between your shots and the HDR process has not aligned them correctly.

The Vivitar you linked to is a Zoom lens having some macro'ish capability. All true Macro lenses are primes having a fixed focal length and are (IMHO) the only real option for decent macro work.
Macro zooms tend to simply adjust the internal elements to allow for slightly closer focussing at shorter distances than they otherwise can and you lose focus at infinity. The loss of infinity focus is not a real issue but a true macro lens can focus from very close to infinity without a problem.

All other options to achieve macro images can produce good results with patience but a dedicated macro lens is best. One of the Dixons group was selling the SMC Pentax D-FA 100mm Macro lens recently for under £300, a real bargain.

The cheapest 'entry level' option to macro photography is a standard 50mm prime lens and a set of extension tubes. I would try that first because there is no point investing several hundred pounds in a macro lens if you eventually discover you haven't got the patience for it, and you need that by the bucket load.

Other options include reverse mounting a wide angle lens, say 28mm, on your camera for which you will need a reversing adapter (male K mount to male filter thread to match the chosen lens).

My least favourite option is to stack two lenses, one reverse mounted to the other, for which you will need stacking rings (dual male threaded). EG: A 50mm lens stacked onto a 200mm lens which is mounted to the camera will result in magnification of approx 4X. It borders on micro-photography though, rather than macro-photography.

The Raynox lenses attach to the front of your existing lens a bit like a clip-on lens hood. It fits lenses having a filter thread diameter of 52 - 67mm.

Raynox Macro lenses page.