My Dad recently bought the Metz 48 and TBH I don't think you can do better without paying a lot more. The only thing it lacks which I would have liked to see is an old style Auto mode so it can be used automatically on Film bodies, but as long as you're only using it on your K100D it will serve you very well indeed.

I believe what amoringello is getting at is that your reaction times are not fast enough to catch something as brief as a lightning strike unless you are very very lucky or it's an unusually long strike. I've seen repeat strikes which appeared to last several seconds, and those you could obviously capture easily, but they are not common.

just an idea, but during the day if you were to stop down and/or use an ND filter to give you a nice long exposure time you'd have a better chance of catching a strike.

It will never look as impressive during the day though.

Also with regard to the noise cancelation setting, there's nothing to stop you taking your own dark frame and subtracting it in software later. Not sure about other RAW converters, but UFRAW (which is free) allows you to pick a second RAW file and use it as a dark frame. I use this for astro photography and it works really well.

thanks for the explanation and How-to, I'm going to try this! I never have been able to convince myself whether I just suck or my K10D has a slight back focus issue, this should prove it.

maybe I'm missing something but I don't see how a firmware hack could fix the viewfinder being off? The AF system fine, but the viewfinder screen is at a set physical distance from the focal point of the lens. If it's off surely you need to move the screen?

the third one is fantastic! lovely shot.

I use GIMP as my main photo editor, but I don't think I quite understand what you are asking?

There are 6 selection tools. They are along the top line of the main GIMP tool palette. If you are used to photo editing programs I would have thought they would be fairly familiar to you, certianly the first two will be familiar even if all you have used is MS Paint.

In order from the left, you can select a rectangular area or an eliptical one, or you can go for a freehand drawn area, an area of similar colour within a defined threshold, all areas of the same colour or a semi automatic edge following freehand selection.

If you need any of these explaining in detail, or are actually trying to ask about something quite different, please say so and I'll do my best.

Swap the cables and see if the problem transfers to the other drive.

USB 2.0 cables are largely marketing spin, but occasionally you come across a boosted cable (usually long ones) which will only do USB 1.1

film bodies just don't sell anymore, most people bidding on a body are actually after the lens. I tried to sell one of my SFXs last year and it got no bids at £5.

I refuse to skip a working camera and you just can't sell them, so I am slowly aquiring a larger and larger collection of old Pentax SLRs. I now have one of every generation since the K1000 except the P series.

no, but the 50mm A series F1.7 alone will fetch the current price. The presence of the camera body and other junk probably actually pulls down the price he'd get for the lens alone.

It makes no logical sense, but A and F series 50's go for silly money recently. You can buy a new FA 50 1.4 for the price some of the F 50 1.7s go for on Ebay.


And K1000's go for an inflated price because some photography courses actually require one, and they can no longer be bought new. A K1000 in good condition will have both student 'togs and collectors bidding on it, so the price is pushed way up from what the camera is actually worth. Quite often you can get a K2 for less than a K1000 even though the K2 was top of the range and the K1000 the budget model.