And you've now got the 40 page Supplement as well, so that makes enough reading to cover every evening of the week!

Thanks Andrew and Peter, it's great to get your comments. We were visiting friends who moved out to Shrewsbury , and it was a great week, totally kid orientated of course. The weather held up rather well. I'm glad we didn't go to Dorset this time, it hasn't been the sort of summer we have enjoyed for the last 3 years.

C**P light, but you got sharp and bold results despite it, so full marks to you and the equipment.

Thankyou! I had to be quick

Rob, I was over optimistic on this trip .... I took the tripod but had no chance of escaping off into the landscape alone, sadly .... but coming away with the portraits and having used the new Cactus gear in the wild was enough to keep a smile on my face

Yes you must! I love the 14mm for this sort of thing .... very satisfying to stop down to F13 and see the depth and clarity of textures continue into the far distance, like you could walk into the scene yourself!

Thanks Mike, its nice you saw the photos.

More good work Derek .... you really have a knack for finding an extraordinary variety of tiny creatures around! These ones, to a non spider lover such as myself, have more appeal than your previous set .... I think they have a neater look with more complementary backgrounds, with beautiful soft bokeh.

I'm not really that surprised to see a lower powered flash fitted to a new camera such as the KP .... this is considering the likely uses for the unit plus the potential target market for the camera. In fact, I'd say that a lower powered unit could be a blessing for many users in most situations ....

It is quite common to see complaints about poor flash exposures from new camera owners or people who expect automatic exposure algorithms to solve all of their creative flash desires. In fact I am aware of a number of people who have taken the issue directly to Ricoh and complained about it.

The thing is, it is not really possible to discuss flash power in isolation from the accompanying camera exposure settings and flash to subject distances in specific scenarios. Here's a typical scenario .... a photographer, even a novice, can now easily obtain a camera such as a KP with a high performing wide aperture lens. They start taking flash shots indoors at F2.8, and let Auto-ISO wreak its usual havoc .... they end up with shots taken at ISO 3200 or more, which is great for recording ambient light if wanted, but is a disaster for the flash exposure, both metering wise and flash power as well. You will easily get overexposed washed out subjects from an on-camera flash in that scenario, because the flash cannot cut its output enough, or the metering is messed up due to the high ambient exposure value and consequent oversensitivity.

There is no indication with a built-in flash of the correct range or distance to use before taking shots, so even to an experienced user who knows what to look for, no way to judge if your flash to subject distance is suitable for the settings in use.

Therefore, as I see it, considering the ISO performance capabilities of the camera, plus the likely target market for the camera, along with the most common automatic operating approaches that those users mainly employ, there is good logic to offering a flash with significantly reduced Guide Number.

I know this only takes into account those sorts of scenarios I have described, and of course more experienced users who can take the needed control to use the flash effectively in a wide range of situations and understand the technical limitations still need more flash power at their disposal .... but there has to be some compromise somewhere.

Thanks Mike, much appreciated .... Yes, the K7 is not the latest, not by a long shot. It's still going strong though! These are, apart from the 2nd to last, all High Speed Sync flash shots. In my view there is no point in using any ISO other than 100 for this technique .... And the K7 is very happy at ISO100 !

The other gear involved is definitely new .... The Cactus V6II and the firmware updates available for their RF60/x flashes, now provide Pentax users with arguably the best Radio HSS flash solution. For now it's Manual mode only, but soon to be released firmware will bring new P-TTL features to the equipment as well

Hi Rob, thanks ....No, I doubt a reflector could have done the job, given the high contrast in the scene. If you see the dark shadow on my older daughters face on the 'off light' side that gives an idea of the result the ambient exposure would have given over her whole face ...deep dark shadows. A reflector would have had to shine blinding glaring light into her eyes to balance that background and sun, with the resulting squinting and uncomfortable look.

Also I was able to adjust the power of the High Speed Sync flash remotely from the camera in response to changes in the background light' and the shutter speed ...I feel this gave me great flexibility during the shoot with different angles.

I think probably good use of a reflector would need a third person to hold and manipulate the reflector, which I didn't have.

You need room to squeeze in the softbox, umbrella and light stands ! You might have to leave out the BBQ ....

Thanks Derek! I'm SO sorry, but the one with the bug on it is sunlight exclusively! The flash lit images are all the fern ones and the tiny white flowers.

Thanks also Stuart, I'm still working on improving the K7's reputation, and my own!