It's not the plugin.

Photoshop 7 does not support layers when the image mode is 16-bits per colour.

You'll need to reduce to 8-bits per pixel first (do any basic curves, levels etc before doing this).

(Photoshop CS does support layers in 16-bit mode.)
Hope that helps,

Matt

There are a couple of updates for the *istD (hope this is not old news):
http://www.pentaxusa.com/digitalupdate/

PhotoBrowser/Library update to 1.10
Pentax's own RAW plug-in for Photoshop Which works in Elements too

The Pentax RAW plug-in does the job nicely (but doesn't have quite the same degree of control as the Photoshop-CS plugin. Shame It would have been nice if Pentax could have done a better job than Adobe

Enjoy!
Matt

Penciltax,

I suggest you calibrate your monitor

Go to www.praxisoft.com and download WiziWYG (it's free). Calibration takes about ten minutes. Here's a link: http://www.praxisoft.com/pages/support.downloads.html#wizi Download the application appropriate to your operating system and go from there. You don't need the WiziWYG reference files at all.

Obviously, you can set the monitor to any brightness/contrast setting you feel like - but this will affect how your photos are presented on screen. In addition, the characteristics of the monitor will make a difference. WiziWYG will get you most of the way there

Hope that helps,
Matt

Prieni,

Getting the gamma right is one thing - squint at the monitor while adjusting. I find the best approach is to work out the upper and lower limits that you can see a change for, then set the mid-point. You also have to get the right phosphor (or use Generic LCD if using LCD TFT). It's a "best-shot" approach. The best way is to buy one of those "spiders" that actually measure the colours on screen. But that'll set you back a bit

Sounds strange about the light images. From what I recall, most of the printing equipment has the choice for "auto adjust" and "leave alone". Sometimes you find that someone's changed the option by mistake. What I can say, though, is that the internet printing has been very consistent with Jessops.

You'll find that www.photobox.co.uk print out to A3, and even A2 What they say in their "Quality Advice" section is that A3 requires at least 2000 pixels on the longest side, and A2 requires at least 2400 pixels. So you should be just fine with 3008x2008.

Best thing is to send a couple for trial and judge them on that
(Something I must get round to doing for large format!)

Matt

Prieni,

The first thing is to calibrate your monitor. Download Wyziwyg from www.praxisoft.com. It's free and takes about 10 minutes to profile your monitor. That might make a difference.

I've used Jessops before, via the Internet. The in-shop service locally was dire and I tried to use them a few times (once I received some gift tokens from head office). Just gave up and use the Internet.

Here are some others to try:
www.photobox.co.uk - they don't tweak the photos. I haven't tried them yet, but will next week
Boots. Again, heard good reports, but might depend on the staff at the branch.

(For my personal 6x4 shots I now use a HiTi Photoshuttle dye sublimation printer, which works out at 35p per print. www.hitishop.co.uk . Exceedingly useful and covers 90% of my print needs)

(I am sure others will be able to comment too)
Matt

Jules,

No compensation is necessary You just look through and shoot

It's just a pity that when you slap a 20mm on the *istD, it has the same angle of view as a 30mm on a film camera. But, yes, a 200mm behaves like a 300mm, and a 300mm like a 450mm. Very nice

Matt

Why would you want to :
Just ditch the body and get a Pentax to go with the lense

Seriously, though, sounds funny, unless you can somehow mount M42 screwthreads onto a Canon. None of the autofocus lenses would work at all - Canon designs the motors in the lense, whereas Pentax has the motor in the body.

Maybe it was a typo?

Matt

Just hop over to here:
http://www.pentaxusa.com/docstore/index.cfm?show=6

And look under SLR, and download the ME manual

Matt

Howlett's is in Kent, not far from Canterbury. Fantastic set of tigers, elephants, and gorillas. Best to go while it's cool, otherwise the tigers flob out on platforms that'll need a 400mm and tripod to get a good shot

Matt

Hi!

Yes, the motor for focussing is in the body. Focus speed depends primarily on the light level at the focus sensors. If you use the Sigma EX lenses, you should be just fine

It's a difficult one to judge, but I've tried some really nice Canon gear (EOS50E and EOS3 with f2.8 lenses) and it felt slower, but that was in poor light. Both my Z1 and *istD perform really well with good lenses, and they can really kick the lense round. I've not seen any scientific timing tests though.

The only annoying problem I have had with *istD focussing was at Howlett's in the UK. They installed black fences between the public and the animals. The fences are about 1 to 2m back, and the *istD with Tokina 24-200/f3.5-5.6 lense had some trouble. I had to resort to manual focus. Two things, though, the black fence was very invasive and presumably was taken as a really good contrast point, and the lense was not very fast at 200mm - only f5.6.

Best thing to do is to get to Park Cameras in Burgess Hill (if you can) and have a play. They stock some nice lenses too

Hope that helps,
Matt