Personally I find the O-ME53 helpful, although the impact is not radical. That said, my eyesight is not brilliant so maybe it just gives me sufficient for my needs. There is a trade off though as having the eyecup fitted does make it trickier to see into the corners of the viewfinder, at least it does for me as I wear glasses - which can make framing a shot a little more ponderous at times. If possible I would advise trying to go somewhere like SRS microsystems and try the various accessories out.

I always use a Pentax magnifying eyecup on my K7. I prefer it to the basic viewfinder and the magnified image is undoubtedly better for seeing focus details, although I imagine a split screen viewfinder may be better still. Plenty of folk here use one of those and can no doubt advise.

The right angled finders, I think, invert the image which you see, so provided you can deal with that I am sure they would be useful depending on your particular style. I have often thought about getting one for low-down macro work, but as yet have not taken the plunge...

Regards

I don't know about that specific model but I use a wired remote on my K7 which is designed for use on a Canon camera with no problems at all. This one says it is for Canon and Pentax so I would expect it should work OK.

It depends in part precisely what the nature is of the pic you want to take. The kit you have will be fine for getting some great shots. My technique is generally to have the camera in Av mode and set the aperture to be pretty small (i.e. a reasonably big f-number). With close-up work such as you might want to be doing in these circumstances, the depth of focus will be pretty thin (razor thin with a big aperture) and a smaller aperture will help to keep the DOF it as deep as possible. This means normally (unless the ambient light is excellent) that you will need to use the flash, as otherwise the small aperture will lead to a slow shutter speed and it will be tough to get a sharp shot - particularly hand-held. I normally try and use something from f8 upwards and often I am around f11-f16. I should add that if you particularly want to get a pic with a very narrow DOF (i.e. maybe just having the eyes in focus or something) then maybe you will need a bigger aperture... horses for course really.

For flash, I normally dial it down a bit, as using it 'full blast' close up, even with the small aperture, can lead to the highlights (or indeed everything) being blown out. I use a Pentax 540 flashgun and I usually dial it down to -0.5 or -1, and I often put on an extra diffuser (like a stofen omnibounce) as well. The onboard flash is also not bad although again I would dial it down to -0.7 or -1. I also have cheap hotshoe cable which enables me to have the flashgun off the camera altogether and that can be very helpful for controlling lighting, although generally I then need a tripod as I end up with my hands full!

Then for focussing I imagine autofocus will be fine for something the size of a butterfly. but often manual focussing can pay dividends when photographing very small things close up. I would go with whatever is most comfortable to start with, and I know some people have success using the 'catch-in focus' function on the camera with manual focussing, although I don't know if the *ist DS has that function.

Above all I would get out there and experiment and see what works best. Key points would be small aperture and dialled back flash. IMO.

Hope that helps

I haven't tried the sony or the Olympus, but I have a WG1 and I have just used it to take hundreds of pics on holiday. I have to say I have been very impressed with it. I'll post some pics on here I expect in due course. I found myself on holiday on the fringe of a tropical storm in New York (hot on the heels of Hurricane Irene) and also underwater in the caribbean and hence the WG1 was pretty much in it's element. I reckon the image quality is pretty good for my needs and it stoop up to sand, rain, seawater, being dropped, being squashed...

Regards

I agree with George. You could try avoiding it by taking off the lenshood, or it could be fixed altogether by using a flashgun in the hotshoe (i.e. a bit more elevated than the onboard flash) or using off-camera flash or alternative lighting. As an issue it is most pronounced at wide angles (hence you've seen it at 16 and 18mm), as the wide angle of view means that those areas where the flashlight is interrupted by the protruding lens are in the shot - it shouldn't be such an issue as you zoom onto longer focal lengths.

Regards

For travelling light at roughly those focal lengths I use the 'kit' pentax lens 18-55mm. I had an earlier incarnation of the lens with my old K10d which I wasn't overly impressed with, but I bought a used one of the 'mark 2' WR versions from SRS and I think the lens is pretty good, albeit not stellar. I have been pleased enough with it so far and it is lightweight and compact. A real bargain as well given that you can pick them up for a handful of tenners. I have read on here, I think, that other people have not been so happy( so maybe it's a case of try before you buy... certainly worth consideration I reckon, although obviously it won't go quite as long as the 28-80. Maybe get a DA70 ltd as well

Regards

I was in a very similar position to you, Andrew, a few months back - just fancied a go with a Pentax film SLR. I thought it would be good to get something which was DSLR-esque if I could (in my research I had become rather taken with the MZ-S, which still fetches a fair ransom as far as I can tell). I nipped to my local little independent camera shop (teddington photographic, which I rather like) and picked up a Pentax *ist. I think it was about forty or fifty pounds (so not as cheap as some), but it is a great little camera. Very small and light, and with a lot of functionality built in which I have become used to from using a DSLR. I am very pleased with it whenever I use it, although it's lightness is always a point of note whenever pick it up (I think this is because it is made ostensibly of plastic).

I still find it amazing that the cameras which I used to pore over in the catalogues years ago, conscious of the fact that it would be at least a lifetime before I could ever amass the relative fortune it would take to actually own one, can now be found on ebay for (in some cases) effectively a couple of quid + P&P! Great for us though.

I have been on holiday for the last couple of weeks and spend some days on Grand Bahama island. Beautiful place -and I did find a photographic shop, and in there, amongst the various point and shoot digital compacts, they were still selling new (first hand) Pentax film SLRs... no idea how old their stock was though...

Regards

I agree that this is a beautiful shot Nass; the richness of the colours and the shallow DOF really make it pop! I'm not surprised the BBC selected it, nor that you have had 5000 hits in a day! (which is about as many as I have had ever!:shock

Nice one

Wow +1 from me, these are outstanding - can't wait to see more. I love the clouds in number 2 - they almost look like ghosts or spirits scudding about, and the contrast in the mountains is fantastic. Really top stuff.

Regards