I too have the Pentax 100mm (the older "SMC-F" brute). Optically the same as all the other Pentax 100mm, AFAIK, and brutally sharp for portraiture
Astonishingly so
Matt

For P-sized stuff there's quite a few
Kood do a reasonable polarizer.
Hitech do filters that seem as good as the Cokin.

Check out www.srbfilm.co.uk - they stock most stuff.

(Then there's the Z-Pro too... the Cokin filters in Z-Pro are better than their P sized ones. Odd but true!)

Also check out www.speedgraphic.co.uk who have (had) some good deals on filter kits!

Matt

You don't actually need TWO outputs from the RAW converter

For example:
* Load the image into your RAW converter
* Reduce the exposure so you are not clipping highlights
* Change the gamma so the image goes "flat" - this will bring up the shadows somewhat. Don't worry that it looks "yuck" - you'll fix that quickly in Photoshop
* Output the file in 16-bit TIFF

In Photoshop:
* Use a curves layer to bring up the appropriate areas - apply mask as appropriate
* Use another curve layer with an "S" shape to add contrast. Again, use the mask
* Manually dodge & burn by creating a blank layer, changing the blend mode to "Overlay" or "Soft Light" and painting black or white (10% soft brush).

To illustrate:
Here's a three shot HDR with Artizen.
And here's a single shot (processed a bit like the above... but with some other Photoshop techniques that I'm not letting on yet )

Have fun
Matt

Number 2 looks most "right". However, it's not a good test image - the left side has a green tinge, the right has a magenta tinge

In the Capture One subdirectory there's a useful colour checker TIFF file (it's in Adobe RGB colour space). That's worth loading as a quick check (and is especially useful when trying to colour match output).

The joys of colour management
Matt

Another vote for the Op/Tech straps
In the past I'd had a Hama wide neoprene strap (from 7dayshop), but the Op/Tech is far superior! Extremely comfortable and very usable
Matt

Terry, in a 3008x2008 CCD, there are exactly 3008 x 2008 photo sites. There are not "sub pixels".

A CCD works by having a "Bayer matrix filter" in front - so the 6million photo sites are arranged as squares of 2 greens, 1 red, 1 blue. Consequently you have 3million green pixels, 1.5 million red, and 1.5 million blue.

To get a full 3-color-per-pixel JPG or TIFF image out the camera (or RAW conversion software) has to interpolate the missing colours (that's one reason why the quality of RAW conversion software varies so much - they all use slightly different algorithms for guessing the missing data).

Check out "Bayer filter" on Wikipedia.org
Matt

...and to think I nearly ebay'd mine

Maybe I could do with a spare
Matt

PS: Here's a very recent 24-90 shot

The 24-90 is now my most used lens A very good threesome is the 12-24, 24-90 and 50/1.4
Optically superb... I reckon it holds its own even against the legendary 31mm limited
Matt

Not important at all! You want as much light as possible for macro.

I have the older Pentax SMC-F 100mm f/2.8 lens - it's a superb piece of lens, and doubles up well as a very fine (but "brutally" sharp) portrait lens

A cheaper alternative is a set of auto extension tubes. I picked up a set for £20, and with something like the SMC-FA 50mm f/1.4 it's a very nice combination. Given the sheer weight of the Pentax 100mm macro, I don't often carry it around!

Matt

Silkypix

It has B&W - in fact two Monochrome mappings.
I'm not sure if the free version has Mono modes (probably), but that'll cost you nothing!

If you want to do serious post processing, then the combination of either the Pentax software or Silkypix plus Photoshop Elements is really hard to beat.

There's a hundred and one ways to do B&W in Photoshop... but a few are on my website. Or I can give you specific ideas via this thread or PM
Matt