A couple of places in London generally have some older lenses - London Camera Exchange on the Strand has a decent second hand section (also have a website); and around Bloomsbury Camera City and York Cameras generally have some Pentax stuff too. Very close to Microglobe too if you want to look at anything new...

Cheers

Have you tried cleaning the contacts? worth a try. I also have a lens with temperamental SDM, but I find that if I mount the lens and then (reasonably) gently spin the focus ring back and forth from closest to furthest a few times, the SDM works again; not sure why but it does the job for me...

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Wow Neil these are brill! I love the macros with generous background (2, 5 and 7) and the Merlin is very cool.

Great stuff

Gosh that is very cool - nice one!

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Personally if I want to take lomo type pics I use the Hipstamatic app in my iPhone. I really enjoy it, it costs about 2 quid or something, and periodically you can download new 'films' and 'lenses' and mix and match them within the app to create either groovy or hopeless combinations. The only thing which lets it down is that the iphone (3) has a pretty crummy base camera IMO. If Pentax could build something similar (ideally do a deal with whoever owns Hipstamatic ) into the current in-camera filter set that would be very cool indeed. Or maybe it's just me...

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It has been good to see Paulyrichard's pictures and experiences with the new Ricoh GR. It looks very gucci and is getting some excellent reviews; it has certainly piqued my interest. I saw this hands-on review on Steve Huff's page and thought others on here might be interested. Very complimentary as well:

link

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Nice to see your pics again Pauly - I think this pic and in the other thread are great. From what I see the Ricoh looks like a very cool piece of kit.

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Thanks all for the comments. I do remember Kes (having read it rather than seen the film); and Dave I am sure you will enjoy the falconry day - it was enough for me just to get so close to the birds let alone have them flying off your arms and doing their thing. Very cool

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Hello all, I was at a Falconry centre last weekend - the English School of Falconry at Old Warden. A great place with some beautiful animals and the ability to get really close to them and have go at having them fly to and from your hand. Here's a bunch of pics of some of the residents. Picking up on John's earlier thread, these are all captive animals, and there is an additional pic within that thread of a European Eagle Owl from the same day:

1. Great Horned Owl. I think this was with the DA*200



2. Bald Eagle, doing his best to look like a Bouncer. This was with the DFA 100



3. This is a rather wonderful Kestrel called Bentley, also with the DFA 100



4. A bit of a monster! this is an Andean Condor, still not fully grown. He is massive and needs a decent level of wind to get airborne I believe. This was with the Sigma 100-300



5. Launching one of the Bald Eagles, also with the Sigma 100-300



6. The Daddy! This is a Steller's Sea Eagle, which I think is the heaviest Eagle in the world (although a Harpy Eagle maybe edges it for physical dimensions). Either way this fellah was awesome looking with a huge bill! Also with the Sigma 100-300



7. Barn Owl, with the DFA 100. Pretty much silent in flight



8. Great Grey Owl (this one is called Marshall) touches down. He was fantastically endearing, although not as heavy as his size might suggest as his feathers are very thick. This also with the DFA 100.



I hope you like these - as ever there are more on my flickr stream.

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It's an interesting debate. I'm with Pentaxophile; although having said that I do see a large number of truly stunning pictures of captive animals, so perhaps it would be better to create a dedicated category for images of captive animals (is there one already? I am not involved with any camera clubs so am not familiar with typical rules). I enjoy trying to get images of both wild animals in their natural wild habitats and in captivity, although I am disproportionately more successful at the latter!

I also think there are some images which can be taken of animals in captivity which it would be pretty much impossible to get in the wild - the ability to get so close to animals which might be almost impossible to see at all otherwise is wonderful. I was at a Falconry centre last weekend, and took this pic, which I cannot imagine being able to get in the wild... certainly not if I'm driving the camera.




Cheers