at John's comment on DoF

James,

Yes, a 200mm will get you close-ups from a little further away.

And yes, you can use a teleconvertor with the macro. In fact, I have used the Pentax 1.7xAF plus extension tubes on the SMC-F 100mm macro! You actually get closer to the subject, but the magnification is quite astonishing! (Camera shake becoming an increasing problem )

It depends what you want to take. If it's insects and the like, then 180mm or 200mm macro lenses are the thing, but the price isn't nice
If you are taking stills (flowers, objects etc), then the 100mm or even 50mm are great. In all cases you have to get a little creative with the lighting too!

And as a final note - don't forget that the lenses can be used as "normal" lenses too. The 100mm is a fabulous portrait lens, absolutely razor sharp, and the f2.8 is great for very shallow DoF. Actually, it can be a little too sharp, because it shows up every single skin blemish... and not everyone appreciates that

Matt

James,
As John said, it's an earlier autofocus macro. There are times when chromatic aberration is high (on the *ist-D at least), but it is absolutely razor sharp and a joy to use
I have seen very good results from the Tamrom 90mm macro, but having refined my lens collection over the past couple of years I have ended up with Pentax-only

There are a few differences between the SMC-F and SMC-FA versions and the new version. The new version is more compact and a good bit lighter. It has a lens hood supplied, whereas the F & FA don't require one. Optically I cannot comment, but I suspect the quality will be equal, if not better than the older lenses. Cost-wise - you can pick up the F & FA versions for around £200 second hand which is well worth the investment

Matt

I believe not
Matt

A similar, and recent, story from me...
I have Hoya Pro 1 filters on my main lenses (99.7% light transmission). While on holiday in the west of Ireland last week, my SMC-FA 24-90mm was on a film body, in a case and got knocked off a seat while on a boat (my 18 month son's legs were flaying rather wildly at the time) and fell nose down. There was the stomach-churning sound of breaking glass.
The filter had taken the impact and splintered (I can supply photos ), and thankfully the lens was completely unharmed.

...now whether the lens would have been ok without a filter I couldn't say...

In any case, it's interesting to hear about the hardness of the SMC coating (not that I'm going to put it to the test!!!!)

Matt

If you've deleted the images off the card, but not re-written to it, then try this:
http://www.z-a-recovery.com/digital-image-recovery.htm
(It's free )

I have only tried this on a card reader, not when connected directly to the camera.

I would strongly suggest buying a PC USB Card Reader. You can get them for silly money from www.7dayshop.com (something like £2.99). That saves you plugging in the camera and allows you to download the card while shooting on another card Oh yes.... and much more reliable all round

Matt

Just been surfing and found an alternative supplier of the CS-205 remote cable release (that suits the *ist-D, *ist etc):

www.adidt.com
Product M1-C1.

Haven't looked for UK stockists, but saw it for €10.99 on a German site

Matt

John,
There are several ways to upsample.
If you have Photoshop CS, there's a menu buried away - Help / Resize Image. This is pretty good at upsizing. Note that the resolution is mentioned in LPI, not DPI, so read the descriptions

Photoshop CS has newer options for resizing too. "Bicubic Smoother" is available for upsizing. Follow that with a little unsharp mask.

Another possibility is "Genuine Fractals". It's quite expensive, but uses fractal techniques to resize, and reportedly gives very good results.

There are some other products out there (saw a 3mega pixel DSLR image put on the side of an articulated lorry!), but I can't remember the links at the moment.

In all cases, be prepared for a positively massive file size

However, as John pointed out, 3000x2000 pixels still produces some stunning A3, and I have done A2 which just looked superb.

Hope that helps,
Matt

You didn't say what camera it was

If it's an Optio S40 (or similar) this exact same thing happened with a colleague's S40. Turned out to be the focus mechanism. The camera had been dropped and had put the focus slightly out of bounds so the camera couldn't work things out when powered up (so it gave up and shut down on all modes except microphone.)

Since the Pentax repair price was high, we had a go at it ourselves. Turned out to be a relatively simple fix. See here: https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1577&highlight=optio+s40+fo...
(Not for the general user, but may prove useful.)

Sorry I could't give better news
Matt

Simon,
Yes, you're right. The *ist-D/DS/DL have a "multiplier" of 1.5.
All other makes of DSLR have between 1.3 and 1.6x multiplier. The only exception is the Canon 1Ds which has a full frame sensor - and the price to match it

I did a diagram waaay back that you might find useful in visualising it all: http://www.photon.me.uk/matt/cameras/pentax/istd_focal.htm

Hope that helps!
Matt