Well, it would be if you could buy it

Chris - no alas (or a benefit depending how you look at it for protecting against people pinching images).
Some of the images are on ePhotozine though in 1000pixel format.
Matt

Pete:
http://www.airtightinteractive.com/simpleviewer/
(You can just Google for it )
But you'll need to be a bit web-savvy to set it all up. Big hint: Picassa from Google will create an album automatically with the plugin available for SimpleViewer
Matt

Personally, I rather like SimpleViewer - have used it on my home-brew web site ( www.mattmatic.co.uk ) ultrasmall and therefore very fast.
Easy to update as well
Matt

Pete,
I have an 8Mb link at work and that site was still slow in my book
Too much "fluff" for my liking.
Matt

Pete,
The camera doesn't "only do -2EV"
What's probably happened is you've used evaluative metering (the green one), and tried to use -2EV...

The problem is that the surrounding view is quite dark, and the water is relatively bright. Evaluative metering will often get these imbalanced shots wrong...

You have a couple of solutions that require more advanced control:
1) Use meter exposure lock - easiest thing is to zoom in so the water covers most of the frame, half press and press the AE-L button. A little "star" will show in the viewfinder - you have about a minute to recompose and take the shot.

2) Use fully manual - as per John's suggestion, the easiest thing is to:
a) set ISO100
b) set the shutter speed to some value (about 0.5" is a good start for waterfalls)
c) try different shutter speeds until you get a sensible histogram.

So, yes, these shots are overexposed but you may still be able to rescue them a little...
* Try pulling back the exposure compensation in the RAW convertor - you may have detail left in the highlights
* You can try adjusting the gamma - you can either do this directly if your RAW convertor has it, or open the curves control and grab the middle of the curve and pull down slightly to make a curved ramp. This will lower the midtones and make the colours "richer".

HTH,
Matt

Even Ffordes.co.uk (which is never that cheap) has several Z70s going for £69 and that will include a warranty

Matt

They look mis-focussed, not "unsharp".
If you look at the wall by the side of the model, it is in focus at a point either behind or in front of her.

If this was a manual focus lens and you are using the focus-assist - make sure you check the green hexagon in the viewfinder, and not the red viewfinder LED! The red one shows you which sensor has a lock, but isn't accurate for manual focus

(Personally, I always manually select the focus point, usually using the centre point and additionally make use of the AF button on the back and the custom functions to stop the focus-on-half-press.)

Matt

Thanks John & Don
Stressed I am Maybe that's 90% of the problem
Matt

Just a personal thought to the original post by Ben...

It's an interesting thing being able to "visualise" what you want. You know I can do this with my work in designing and writing firmware. I can look at a problem, think of several solutions, whittle it down to one or two and draught out a design. Over the process of writing the code I can keep the "whole" in my mind and adjust the design... to this day I don't know how what processes I go through, it just happens intuitively.

But... but, when it comes to imaging I am aware of a huge gap between the execution and final result. It's like trying to jump a chasm. So, I just go "by eye" and "go with the flow" trying to capture images that make me feel something. Then I work on them and hope that this process produces something

There have only been a few cases where I have thought of the end result before producing the image and so have had a clear vision:
http://www.ephotozine.com/u16488/gallery/302173
http://www.ephotozine.com/u16488/gallery/101235
http://www.ephotozine.com/u16488/gallery/52994
(Make sure you put your coffee cups down before viewing )

The rest have been a case of just capturing what I've seen... and maybe having an inkling of what I want to produce while I'm at the scene.


Some tutorial on bridging this gap would be great

Does that make sense??
Matt