I wondered about this too John - it does seem a bit highbrow.

She may not have said anything - but he did mention once that he'd been out of action for a while

You've very welcome, I'm always interested in camera settings. In this case it is informative that matrix was used, because its been very effective, along with your compensation - I would imagine that the traditional centre weighted metering would have under-exposed the image too much (as it would not 'see' as much of the darker outer areas around the frame. )

Regarding the levels adjustment, for camera JPEGs I wonder what effect the slider 'High Contrast' would have? Its not really 'whitepoint', but I think corresponds more to a typical 'highlights' slider in photo editors. Anyway, it would be interesting to know if pulling it upwards would help with the brighter bits in the image here without increasing mid-tone brightness (which I don't think is wanted).

Ah well thats good, it may well be needed ... as you will have seen we have a very high dynamic range down here (nearer the equator), so you will need those HDR modes for sure, as well as so many moire-inducing subjects that can catch you unawares at any moment, so the aa filter simulator can get a good workout also

I don't think the cat is looking at him : It seems to be looking at something else slightly to the left - David, you really should have got the cat to look at you! I like the shot, the brickwork detail looks very vivid.

Well I just mean that you'd see 'blacker blacks', but without any reduction in DR at the high end, giving an overall increased visable 'contrast', an all 'out the box' (ie with neutral camera settings). Thats my instinctive response having used the Samyang out in similar condiditions.

Tell you what - next time Johns down in Surry we'll get together for a wide angle shootout. We'll head up onto Riddlesdown into some strong front sunlight, equalise our settings and find some creative angles and low viewpoints to put it to the test ... we could even shoot loads of brackets for the required HDR in order to get the whole DR in ... oh, thats right, I forget, he's got a K5

Impossible on the K3 surely - just turn the aa filter simulator off!

So don't eyeball it, eyebrow it!

Great action - well not the guy with the stopwatch! I like the ones with the wheels off the ground, look very sharp and they have energy. All we need now David is some motorsport events running through the lake district to give a better backdrop.

Its worth doing your own scanning, but not on a cheap scanner. Software matters as well, as there are a number of key things that are better to get right at the scan 'capture' stage rather than editing a digital file later, namely exposure, sharpness, contrast, colour temp and any grain reduction needed.

A good mid range way to go would be to try one of the Epson flatbeds - I've got the 500, with a holder for slides and negs. This is versatile for photography & document scanning also. It comes with quite good software for controlling the scan also, and built in grain and spot reduction.

Assuming you want to do this for the fun, and enjoyment of using a film camera and handling the film and all that, then it surely is worth doing it well - I can't see the point of going back to film just to do it cheaply and produce average results that a mobilephone now could probably do better.