Keeping in mind that your editing requirements now, will almost certainly change in the future. Photoshop Elements (PSE) is good, I believe that Lightroom (LR) is much better.

Go for LRnow and if you need to use layers later, fork out for whatever version of PSE is current at that time. Personally I think it'll be a very long time before you think you'll need PSE, if ever.

As it turned out, I think the DA12-24mm was the perfect choice. We had no rain worth mentioning so weather protection was not an issue and the focal length range of 12 - 24mm seemed perfect for cityscapes.

I do of course have quite a few images and they'll take a few days to work through but I'll post a sample tomorrow.

If any of you plans a trip to Valencia city, if you see nothing else, you must go to the Ciudad de las Artes Y Ciencias (City of arts and sciences), and especially the Oceanogràfic exhibition.

Unfortunately for us, two of the exhibition halls, including the Science Museum were closed due to Mercedes Benz having occupied them for the launch of their 2013 collection of vehicles. Truth is, we would not have had time to visit them anyway because our visit to Oceanogràfic took up most of our time. The only other hall we visited was the iMax cinema in the Hemisfèric where we watched a 1 hour film about the navigation of the Nile from its source to the sea. No photography was allowed in there though, so I have only images of the building and some of the interior framework.

Images will follow in a day or two . . . including some video from the K-5II + DA12-24mm combo.

Might be a challenge too far. On Friday we plan to be here.

The DA12-24mm might be pushed to its limits I think, but that's what I have decided to take as my one lens on this trip.

Looking at the weather forecast for the next few days, I might have to change my choice of lens to a weatherproof one , DA*16-50mm springs to mind.

Wifey and I are off to Valencia city for a few days and I'm going minimalist, photographically speaking.

I'm taking K-5II + DA12-24mm + spare battery + spare SDHC card, all tucked up in a Lowepro Nova 1 AW shoulder bag, that's it.

Time will tell what image opportunities might arise.

maybe it should be re-tagged Fool Frame

Look around the camera body, set all switches to green (out of the box default setting) that have a green position, including the 3 position auto focus switch on the left hand side (as you hold it) of the body. Properly fit an auto focus lens and set its AF/MF switch to AF if it has one, and start from there.

If it still doesn't auto focus, send it back to the supplier for a replacement.

FreeFileSynch is very versatile, I use it on a daily basis.

Smeggy, smack in the middle of the last image there is a streak almost at 90 degrees to the arcing star trails. If you can't see it, turn the brightness up on your monitor.

Well I have increased contrast somewhat, and in some I've added a -exposure grad effect to reduce the foreground flash and a +exposure grad to bring up the background just a tad.

I'll have another play but I'm sure you appreciate that with around 200 images, I haven't spent very long PP'ing any of them.

If anybody wants to buy, then I'll spend more time on those that sell, if any.