Thank you for viewing and commenting, Carl. Number 5 is my favorite of these too.

Philip

Thank you for viewing, Dave, and I'm pleased you like those. It certainly is wonderful, and its a big place - my feet are worn out!

Philip

Today I went for a wander around the grounds of Wrest Park, an English Heritage property in Bedfordshire. These photos were shot with a K-5 and the DA 21, 40 and 70 Limited lenses:

1. The view from the front of the Mansion (21mm)



2. The French Garden (21mm)



3. The Mansion House (70mm)



4. Long Water lake (70mm)



5. The Pavilion (40mm)



6. The Orangery (40mm)



Philip

The DA 40mm f/2.8 Limited is an amazing standard prime - very compact, excellent build and, imho, its edge to edge image quality is even better than the DA 35mm Limited. With the DA 21mm and 70mm Limiteds it makes a great 3-prime combo, and whichever two are not being used are so small they even fit in a pocket!

Philip

Gary, about 40 years ago I had a bike just like the green ones in the background of photos 1 and 3, which I think are BSA Bantams. I started motoring and passed the test on a Honda 50, like the red+white one in photo 4. Progression (via a Suzuki 125, a Honda 125 trail bike, a Honda CD175 and a Suzuki 250 twin) led me to the little brother of the CB750 in photo 8, the Honda CB400 Four - a real gem. My last 28 years of biking were on the ultra-reliable CX500B V-twin, but my hip joints gave in and I sold it about 4 years ago.

I enjoy seeing all the old bikes and other old vehicles still running and looking pristine at the steam rallies, and you have a good record of them in this great set of photos.

Philip

I agree with you there, Rob, but would go further - P-Mode on the K-r, and particularly on the two-dial Pentax DSLRs, remains useful and convenient when one has an understanding of the modes and settings. My K-5 is often set to P-mode. I think that being able to grab a decent exposure, or to have full creative control by a nudge of the front or rear dial to get instant access to the Tv or Av modes respectively, is just great!

Philip

Does CS2 have many features/tools that are not present in Elements 10?

Philip

Perhaps it is worth a reminder that, when the Mode Dial is set to Manual, pressing the Green Button (at its default setting) gives the same exposure as would be given in P-Mode, so one can always grab that quick shot.

Philip

Yes, John, there is a distinct "attitude" with some people regarding Raw files - "Real photographers only shoot in the Raw".

Those types also tend to repeat the myth that Jpegs can't be processed without self-destructing. In reality, it is interesting to see just how much extensive editing of Jpegs is possible (though not usually required) in PS Elements or similar software - they can even be adjusted, including their white-balance, in ACR. If there is a bit of degradation in the image quality, it doesn't usually show when viewing images like most normal people would - i.e. at a sensible distance from a screen or a print up to about A3 size.

The important best Jpeg practice is - 1. Always keep the original Jpeg image file and work on a copy; 2. Keep the Jpeg compression factor low; and 3. Edit and then re-save a Jpeg image in one session - try to avoid opening/editing/saving the same Jpeg file several times.

Philip

For those who wish to shoot Jpegs, our modern Pentax DSLRs have many user-adjustable parameters, working with effective firmware, to produce good camera Jpeg image files. They also have very good sensors for capturing a wide dynamic range, plus an additional feature - effective in-camera Jpeg HDR Capture and Processing, useful for when the LCD Review (Bright/Dark Areas + the Histograms) shows that one exposure won't capture the range. So it seems to me that, as long as image data has not been mislaid by inadequate exposure of important shadow or highlight details, our Best Quality Large Jpeg image files contain plenty of data for tweaking in software, if necessary.

Philip