I'm interested in your suggestion regarding using teh auto white balance as I have never seen an improvement using that but I do let the camera do its own AWB.

Do you know why they call them memory colour 1/2? I find number 1 offers some good bright colours but the last film one is sometimes very good for outdoor scenes.

Being lazy I do like the Silky presets!

Mike

I tried that but just got the run around, no stock, no prospect of stock etc.

Bargain at that price!

Mike

I see that someone is selling this lens new at about 100 quid which seems very reasonable

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Samsung-50-200mm-F4-0-5-6-ED-Pentax-Samsung-New-Stock_W0QQ...

Some years back I bought a refurb camera off these guys and it was fine as was their service otherwise no connection.

Mike

I'm sorry I misunderstood about the AF - when using a non AF lens I tend to use the guide from the red AF light and the lozenge at the foot of the viewfinder to reassure myself it's in focus as I don't have the split focussing screen and I always found plain screens difficult to use.

I see what you mean now you could quite easily focus on that bright spot and the it wasn't good enough. Beg pardon.

Mike

Surely that shiny spot is too small for the AF to work on? I thought that AF had a rectangle which is used for focus and it looked for what are essentially hard edges in that rectangle. I'd have thought that shiny spot was too small to focus on and the rest of the rocks are lacking much in the way of contrast.
I shall look forward to being educated on this one!
Mike

If you can solve the front element issue then the condom option hould work well if everything is auto as you don't need to twiddle anything. I gather the problem is getting non lubricated condoms.

http://www.diyphotography.net/diy_the_cheap_yet_shamefull_underwater_housing

Mike

Didn't someone use non lubriucated condoms for this purpose? I'm not sure what they did about the front element but I don't think they were protecting against full immersion.
Mike

I had a stuck needle in the pump and they said I'd need to take it off and send it away at some cost. However by careful exploration and talking to the right man I discovered it was simply rusted up and that using WD40 and moving it back and forth would free it up.

That all went very well but when the throttle spindle which I had had to disturb started to weep diesel then it was pump off time which I managed and then (it can only get worse) I discovered the timing belt was two notches or so out so that you couldn't accurately time the pump against the marks provided.

So I timed it by eye and ear and it's been fine for a year or more but I'll have to sort it sometime.

Oh and it's a Land Rover so that's why you can do all this! Giant Mecanno.

Mike

Won't catch me disagreeing.

Then again they said the same about my diesel pump.

Mike

I think that this link is the very risky, dangerous and downright foolhardy process you're looking for.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1036&thread=22023704&am...

I have never done it, I hope I never need to do it and I wouldn't want to do it. You notice the caveat that you do this at your own risk - well by golly I'll repeat that.

Mike