with my 18-55 I usually use 35mm for panos. The best lens I've ever had for panoramas though was my old Sigma made Zeiss Jenazoom 70-300 at 70mm. Distortion free, and the shots just slotted together.

One thing to remember, the more overlap you have, the easier it will be.

I generally end up with so much overlap that I could physically make the panorama omiting every second shot. Makes it a lot easier though.

I use Hugin to do the stitching. It's free to download, just google.

if you try to do dark fram subtraction later in photo-shop, you may find the results are not what you'd like. It does work to an extent that way, but not as well as doing it in camera.

The reason for this is that it should really be done before the RAW data is converted to an RGB image.

The best way to do DF subtraction later on is to use a RAW converter like UFRAW which allows you to do it at the RAW stage before the conversion is carried out. I use UFRAW for all my conversions so I don't know how many if any of the other converters will do this, but it is by far the best way to do it.

Since UFRAW is free, if your converter of choice wont do proper dark frame subtraction then it's worth the download even if thats all you ever use it for. Make sure you get the most recent version, 0.13.

Peter, that's good advice but it's not Sv, the mode you are thinking of is TAv (Shutter-Aperture Priority). Sensitivity Priority is you pick the ISO, camera does the rest.

Sorry to be picky, but our new friend has enough things to learn without confusion over which mode he's in

drugs.

always drug the other bidders on an ebay auction.

alternatively you could take the concept of "ebay sniping" too literally, but I suspect the police wouldn't be too happy about that one.

hoya supply most peoples glass!

I had always believed Hoya owned Tokina, but now that I look into it I can't find any evidence asside from the already mentioned THK distributors.

Well Nikon call it VR, Canon call it IS, Panasonic call it Mega-OS, Pentax call it SR and Sony call it Super-Steady-Shot (I know the last two are in camera not in lens, but they perform the same task)

It's only the same as every other feature, every company has a different name for Sonic in lens motors, Apochromatic optics, Pro series lenses......

It's confusing, but it's life.

that was commendably quick

they are indeed a diffraction effect caused by a non-circular aperture. The effect becomes stronger the more you stop down, because the aperture becomes both less circular and smaller.

If you like the effect, stop down when there are strong light sources present and it will apear

if you don't like it, use a Neutral Density filter to achieve long exposures in these situations rather than stopping down.

fantastic shots, shame about the watermark although I understand why you've done it. Bet these look great in the original.

right on time,

http://www.whattheduck.net/

the author is a Canon user, but I don't think we should hold that against him.

(for those who may read this after the next one comes out, I'm looking at strip 433)