Thanks Anvh, that link doesn't seem to quite work but I searched the name on YouTube, very interesting! Not my usual style, but very good.

A friend of mine introduced me to Audioslave a few years ago, I only have one album of theirs but it often finds itself in my playlist. I should get more really!

the list in my above post is far from exhaustive, just a few of my favourites.

without meaning to sound like I'm bragging, I could. Actually I'm pretty sure I've "beaten" those speeds with my K10D and 50-200.

Its all down to technique. If he's a novice or has shakey hands then those speeds are impressive, and if he can take 10 frames and have every one critically sharp then they are very impressive.

On the other hand if that's the best shot from 5 and he's an experienced photographer with steady hands then the "new" system is no better than the SR on the K10D.

no doubting its a nice lens though.

Deppends what mood I'm in and how hard I need to concentrate, but yes I often have music on while working or playing on the computer

Mainly Deep Purple, Thunder, Counting Crows, Audioslave, Steeleye Span, Cat Stevens, Blackmores Night. The list is pretty varied but as I said my musical taste varies wildly depending on my mood.

If I need to concentrate hard it's either nothing at all or instrumental classical (generally I enter Mozart into Last.FM and let it play).

deppends what I'm shooting and which lens.

With my Tamron 300 F2.8 I'll use a support of some kind if possible, although I have been known to use it hand held for fast moving subjects like aircraft in flight.

With my FA 80-320 it's generally hand held with SR on.

The Tamron SP 90mm is a fine macro lens. I'm out of the loop but I paid £50 for mine 2 or 3 years ago.

only *istD and K10/20/7? owners are supposed to use the remote assistant software.

However, the version for the *istD does more or less work with the lesser *ist series bodies provided you haven't updated the firmware.

Obviously none of us would dream of using software in violation of its license agreement, so this information is for educational purposes only

I couldn't agree more, that was part of what took so long with my post-processing. Of ~1100 initial frames, I think we showed the happy couple ~150 from which they picked 40 for the final album.

I'm not going presume to advise for or against, but I thought the OP might be interested to hear my similar escapade.

My Dad and I shot my Uncles wedding this time last year, we didn't charge and simply gave the album as our wedding gift.

Dad and I are both keen amateurs but not pros by any standard, at least not pro wedding 'togs anyway.

Point 1: There were two of us, I would not have considered doing it on my own. This way we were able to spot mistakes the other made, take the same shots from two different angles at once, etc. An extra pair of lungs for crowd control during the set piece photos was particularly essential.

Point 2: Equipment. I'm not sure what you have or are thinking of getting, we used (between us):

3x DSLRs (2x DL2, 1xK10D) with 2x K1000 film bodies for emergency backup (come rain, wind or wrath of God we were taking photos!)
18-55, 16-45, 50-200 and 50mm F1.4 lenses
2x flash guns with diffusers (the smaller Metz PTTL bounce/swivel and a Sigma 530)
a big sturdy tripod
more memory cards and spare batteries than you can shake a stick at
a laptop set up at the venue in case we ran out of cards (we didn't, quite)

for processing we used two laptops to get proofs done quickly, then final processing was done on my desktop with a calibrated HP 1955 display to get the colours right (you don't want the brides dress looking green!)

we took well over 1000 frames between the two of us. The one thing I really underestimated was the length of time it takes just to weed them down to the short list you show to the happy couple. It took an evening just to get rid of the ones which were out of focus, improperly exposed or where the composition was poor.


It worked out well, the couple loved the album. By my reckoning, it went well for the following reasons:

we managed their expectations well. From the very first we made it absolutely clear that we are not professionals and would not be able to guarantee a pro grade result. The key is never to promise anything you are not 100% sure you can deliver, no matter what else goes wrong.

we spent about 6 months on and off planning how it would be done and buying equipment to bring our kit up to the bear minimum we considered necessary (a 50-135 would have been nice in the service, but the budget did not allow and my 50-200 had to serve). For example the 50mm F1.4 and both flashguns were bought to prepare for the wedding.

we were supremely lucky with the weather, to the extent that the family calls the weather we got that day my late great grandfathers wedding present. In mid October we had glorious sunshine all day.


Despite a great deal of preparation and good luck, it was easily the most stressful days photography I've ever had. Would I do it again? yes, but only in the same circumstances ("please Joe we can't afford a photographer, it's you or nothing"). I wouldn't dream of charging and as far as a career goes you Pros can keep it!

BTW, Welcome to the forum!!

you will need to set the body to allow lenses without the "A" setting on the aperture ring

This is counter intuitive since the mirror lens has no aperture ring, but what the camera really needs is electronic communication with the body and the mirror lenses lack this ability.

In the custom functions menu there is an option for allowing shutter release with aperture ring set other than at "A", this must be set to "allow". Also "use aperture ring" must be set to "permitted". I don't have a camera in front of me so I'm not sure of the exact wording but hopefully you will be able to find the settings. If not I will look on my DL2 later on, they should be the same.

Once these custom functions are set, the lens will function in Av and Manual mode.

With the main dial set to any automatic mode, the camera will function in Av mode with the lens wide open (obviously the mirror lens has no adjustable aperture so it is always wide open anyway)

In manual mode you set the shutter speed as normal. To get the metering to work in manual you have to activate Depth of Field Preview, or press the Ae-L button. The former will bring up a meter display as per usual M mode operation, the latter will take a light reading and set the shutter speed accordingly.

hope this makes sense and helps, any problems just ask.