Gosh some impressive record shots there (ahem). Glad you went back to the Park again. Were these with the 250-600?

Regards

Not sure you're going too far wrong... It would be useful to know if this is a crop and what the exif data is (maybe I can get that myself from the pic?? - not sure how to:shock. The pic looks a little noisy, especially in the bokeh, so I am guessing you had to use a high ISO to get a decent hand-held shutter speed, and you were perhaps shooting wide open or close to wide open?, the pic has the 'look' of being a crop to my mind, but the bird is in good focus and I think the composition is fine. I can imagine that curlews can be flighty if you get too close so I can't imagine it is easy to get frame-filling shots...:

Regards

These are wonderful - the first two especially. I love the DA15 and you have used it to excellent effect here - well done!

Regards

Many thanks everyone for the kind comments. I have to say I thought the Optio was a bit of a revelation, and I was chuffed with the pictures it produced, although I tended to keep it limited to no higher than ISO200 (lower if I could get away with it) and generally had -1ev dialled in. The jpegs straight out of the camera are not as grainy as one or two of these might suggest, as I have added a little grain into some of the pics in PP. In the Bahamas I used the Optio underwater (snorkelling) so it will be interesting to see how those pics come out - suffice to say the weatherproofing etc., performed flawlessly.

Ali - great minds etc. on the holiday front We really loved both New York and the Bahamas..., New York is just how you imagine from the TV and films, whilst the Bahamas is so chilled out! The glass in the first image is from a building which effectively has flat glass walls, although they flared out ski-jump-style at the bottom near the ground. Part of that flared curved portion of the wall is what is in the picture - hence the slightly odd-seeming lines (I think)

Best Regards

Hello all. More holiday pics!! It seems (and is!) ages since I posted any pics on the forum. I was on holiday in September, and started it in New York. I had never been there before and it is a truly fascinating place. We arrived in hot sunshine but pretty quickly tropical storm Maria (I think) arrived and we had a couple of days of proper deluge! I had the K7 and the Optio WG1 with me, and I used the Optio a lot owing to its waterproofing - the rain was SO heavy at times that I wasn't even convinced that the K7 and WR 18-55 would cope. The dullness also meant I processed a lot of pics into black and white; and I thought I would post a few of the monos here. There are more than usual so apologies if it takes a while for the thread to load up. Any C&C welcome. I hope you like these...

1. First up, reflections. This was taken with the K7/18-55 and a polariser, on the nice day when we arrived:




2. St Patrick's Cathedral on 5th Avenue, same day:




3. Downtown Manhattan from the top of the Empire State building - by this time the storm had well and truly arrived. This was taken with the Optio:




4. The situation at ground level (Optio again):




5. Taking refuge in the Museum of natural History, there are a great number of dioramas with stuffed animals. This one is the Rhinos, taken with the K7 and Sigma 30 f1.4:




6. Misty evening, Times Square (Optio again, and the cloudbase has lowered somewhat):




7. The empire state disappears into the sky... (Optio again):




8. The Statue of Liberty from the Staten Island Ferry (the ferry is a great bargain as it's free! This shot was K7 and (I think) 18-55 lens, although could have been DA70...) The cloud was showing no real signs of lifing:




9. Welcome to (Historic) Little Italy! (K7 and sigma 30 f1.4, from upstairs on a moving bus at night...):




10. Inside St Patrick's cathedral. This was K7 and DA15, at ISO1600, which is a bit further than I would normally push the ISO on the K7:




11. The USS Intrepid air and space museum, just as the clouds are breaking and the weather turning rather splendid again... (K7 and DA15):




12. and from underneath as well...(same setup):




13. and finally... Central Park from the Rockefeller Tower, first thing (well, we got the first lift up anyway, so about 0845 I guess), this is the K7 and 18-55 again:




I took loads of shots and I am still working my way through them, so if you'd like to see any more there's a ton of them on my flickr - including in glorious technicolour!, and available in bigger size. I'll no doubt post a few more on here in due course. After New York we went to Grand Bahama, so look out for the next thrilling installment...

Regards

I have a DA* 16-50 and I love it, although I tend not to use it at 16mm very often, and I rarely use it wide open. I thought the review of it was a fair one. I also paid a lot less than the review suggests (although it was a while back). It clearly has limitations but it can produce amazing images as well. you pays your money you takes your choice I guess...

I assumed the 'F---' flashing means, that the camera doesn't know what aperture is set. Normally the display would highlight the selected aperture by displaying the f-number. With no communication between the camera and the lens (as the lens is either old/manual or the contacts are not functioning) then the camera doesn't know and so flashes F--- and if to say f???... I think. To overcome it you can obviously rectify the faulty contacts and get the auto modes of the camera back on track, or switch into manual modes.

Regards

I saw that deal myself and was VERY sorely tempted... although i don't have the cash just now. I must confess at that price I wondered if it was 'too good to be true'. If all is well though (and there's no reason to think not), you will have got a real bargain. If there is any problem then I have no idea what Avides customer service is like - but who knows?

Welcome Alessandro - you've come to the right place .

Regards

I think I am thinking along the same lines as Mike. I get that same thing occasionally with one lens (a sigma) and I fix it by depressing the button on the lens mount and just rotationally wiggling the lens in the mount a little. I assumed it was due to a loss of contact between the lens and the camera as that is the display you typically get when you attach a manual lens.

Could be way off though...

Mat