Good stuff Russ, I love the deep blacks - try to print that and you'll soon run out of ink! Its great that you images appealed to the Lotus poeple, and well done for standing up and making it work for you.

Gee thanks!, that sounds like one of those 'you must have a very good camera' type of comments we all LOVE to hear

Its true of course - the K7 is a supurb image making machine, especially in the right h..... You're right as well about the K5 too - I mean, both cameras look the same and they've got exactly the same buttons and levers!

Thanks for you photo feedback, and Steve above also, I appreciate the encouragement and suggestions ... you know I won't 'bin' those last two!

I like the well controlled exposures, nice suble contrast and deep tones. There is good detail, especially on the butterfly wings.

This series was shot in a 'walkabout' approach (out looking for more strangers in shop windows ) early evening. I want to present the area in a series of 'snapshot' views, looking this way then that, to give a quick overview of the variety and extremes on display.

I was also putting into practice my theories on exposure techniques, as detailed on here recently, by using careful metering choices on midtones & highlights to create exposures that bring out the deeper tones and emphasize shapes and contrasts more. As well with the final images of the Brompton Oratory I took two radically different metering approaches to make a high key & low key presentation for variety - (the images were made in the same lighting).

All with the K7 handheld, mostly with the Tamron Adaptall 135mm f2.8, and some (the Victoria & Albert museum) with the Pentax 28mm f2.8 & 2x teleconverter (giving 56mm).



1. Michelin Man







2. Victoria & Albert Museum







3. GOLD FERRARI!







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10. Bela Bartok







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13. Brompton Oratory







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Thanks for viewing and for all your impressions and thoughts.

You have certainly been making the most of that great little camera already ... the close up flowers are all very impressive, and all the shots are well taken (or should I say 'made' , Ken? :wink.

OK so we really need a set of men on bikes at night then.

It sounds like you actually needed to be using 'high speed sync' - soemthing offered on some flashguns. This is designed to allow flash at shutter speeds higher than the maximum 'sync' speed (180th sec), therefore giving you flash but allowing the camera to use a suitable shutter speed for the bright lighting. It is mostly used for fill-flash situations, which sounds like you were working with.

It is usually shortened to 'HSS', so I'd check the Metz instructions how to activate it and for what mode to use on the camera. Manual would be idea, and you would use the green button to get a meter reading once your aperture is set.

If you want a really good image management solution that builds a database catalogue of all your files, including any RAWs, then try iMatch ... the developer is 'photools.com'.

I'm not on commission I assure you Philip! Can't remember now where I first read about it, but it was a book of some sort - probably on image organisation or something. But glad you've found it useful too - it has always made images very clear looking for me.

It certainly is, with some very good ideas for assessing brightness levels in scenes, image metering and exposure techniques ... indeed, we've been, I mean I've been, talking about those very things on this forum just recently