Dad and I took my younger Sister to meet our favourite camera salesman this weekend. As usual, great service from Chris, we had a long chat and had a good look at just about everything going. Nik liked the Pentax K-x best, presumably partly because she can borrow bits and pieces from her Dad and Bro, but all around for me it was the best camera there. Only the Nikon D3000 came anywhere close but the VR lens felt bulky and to me the viewfinder seemed inferior.

I was surprised at the number which had no MF/AF switch, and also at just how bad the EVF is on the Panasonic Lumix EVIL camera. TBH They shouldn't have bothered, the EVF is a waste of space. I still don't think EVILs are a bad idea per se, but the EVFs need a LOT more work.

one to show people who think they need (insert expensive kit lens replacement here) before they can take decent photos. Well done John!

You clearly have far more experience than I at this so I'm sure you're right, certainly much narrower than f/8 would cause trouble, but I seem to have got away with it

BTW even though it's not quite what you wanted, I like your attempt at the crossover shot, it does at least give a hell of a sense of speed!

thanks Chris, number 3 was helped by the fact that I saw more or less the same routine last year so I knew I would get 3 chances to get that shot, and exactly what angle they would come from. 2 out of 3 weren't even close!

I reckon to have any chance of actually freezing them you've got to wind the shutter right up to 1/4000th and pray. These boys are certifiably insane.

One useful thing I learned though is that, even as low as they look, Manual focus, f/8 and infinity deals with the focusing so you can concentrate elsewhere.

I'll have another look at the RAW file in a bit and see if I can bring it a bit more to life.

thanks for the thoughts, and good luck next week. Even if the photos don't come out, it's an amazing display.

Well I promised Chris@SRS I'd post a few of these so he could see them, here they are Chris!

All taken with a K10D and Tamron 300mm f/2.8 at f/8 and 1/1000th, ISO 200 (I think) on Thursday afternoon at the UK Defence Academy.

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v68/thatguypinchedmyname/The%20Red%20Arrows%202010/IMGP7543.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v68/thatguypinchedmyname/The%20Red%20Arrows%202010/IMGP7554.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v68/thatguypinchedmyname/The%20Red%20Arrows%202010/IMGP7582-1.jpg[/IMG]

C&C always well received, I can take it!

be careful Mike, I don't think you took that with a Pentax... (Insert tongue-in-cheek smiley here)

PS I really like Photo 3 and the one which made the paper, for me just the right amount of prop blur and I can almost hear the Merlin as she roars overhead. Well done.

I like snapmad (dlab7 as was). I can't comment on camera club quality, never having been a member of one, but I had my Uncles wedding photos printed by Snapmad and he was over the moon with the results.

I'm not suggesting that this isn't genuine per-se, but given the variety of variations on the "Nigerian 419" type scam which float about the net, might it be prudent to verify the identity of the requester?

this page appears to have a pretty comprehensive team list, I'd find the person who contacted you on that list and reply directly to their e-mail address as given on the museum site.

I'm certain you will find the person is genuine, but better safe than sorry.

if the problem is that Pentax Lab doesn't provide enough power in terms of a RAW converter, there are a number of other fine options, some of which are free.

I like RawTherapee which is free and has the option of sending the result directly to GIMP (in theory it can do this with other editors, but I've never tried it since GIMP is what I use).