Going through terminal 3 at Heathrow this morning I noticed that, for the first time in ages, Dixons were not only stocking Pentax DSLR’s but actually had a Pentax display, albeit it was a bit smaller than the. Canikon ones.

The interesting thing was the range of products stocked, not only was there a K5, Kr and Q but 6-7 lenses including a DA*50-135, DA10-17, DA100mm – not normal kit lens stuff.

It makes me wonder if the aim of the recent price increases was to make a wider retail channels of channels viable, in which case it could be working….

Interesting news.
link

Pity there are no pictures, especially of the 560mm!

Not sure how the K mount adaptor for the Q would handle though. Seems to defeat the point of a small camera, but I guess it might be intersting with the ltd lenses

Nick

Thanks all.

I think it will come down to which of the two company's software I can work best with. The Blurb software has a lightroom addin, which should speed things up, but the Albelli has an auto-position function which makes a first pass at positioning the photos in the book and then allows you to move them around.

Choices choices..

I use lightroom and an old version (7) of Elements. I've dabbled with full Photoshop but I found it was too complex unless you use it very regularly.

Lightroom 3 does 90% of what I need, and Elements easily does the rest, and the interfaces are pretty consistant

However after reading this I looked on Amazon and Elements 10 is up for £33.27 (vs £65 on the Adobe site) so it seems too good to miss.

Hi Everyone. I’m thinking about producing a photobook as a present for Christmas. I’m thinking hardback, landscape, around 39x29cm.

I saw that Albelli won a comparison on the Gadget show, but has anyone any experience of them, or of anyone else they would recommend?

Thanks

Nick

Hi John,

Filter arrived safely. Great condition. many thanks,

best

Nick

While I really liked the idea of the DA*16-50 what put me off was that for every review or post that says its great, there is one that says that the SDM fails and the image quality is only OK, or inconsistant between samples. I also had a Tokina ATX Pro 70-200 2.8 and it was a disappointment.

The reason I was going towards the Sigma is that dispite the price, the two EX's I have are great and I really like the feel of them. But my Tamrons also been good, and common sense put in a quick appearance!

I'll let you know when I get it!

Thanks everyone, I was leaning towards the Sigma, but after Jonathan's post I decided that the Jacobs deal was just too good to miss (thanks for that Jonathan!), so I've gone for the Tamron (with a 5 year warranty!).

At that price if I don't like it I think I could still sell it on and not loose too much and get the siggy. If I keep it I have a bargin!

Best

Nick

PS if anyone did want a DA*16-50 Mifsuds have a brand new one, 12 months warranty, £549, which is less than the Sigma - how times change! I'll also post on deals.

PM Sent

I'm looking for a sharp mid to wide angle zoom to fit in between my DA12-24 and Sigma 50-150. (I'm not that interested in the DA*16-50; too many indifferent IQ comments and SDM issues, and I'm not fussed about its WR properties as I rarely immerse lenses.) I’m looking for a step up in IQ from my DA 16-45.

I'm think about either the Sigma 17-50 EX or the Tamron 17-50 Does anyone have experience of the Sigma, or even better both. The few reviews or comments of the Sigma I’ve seen are good, but there are not that many reviews about. The Tamron gets great reviews, but the one I tried had a very tight zoom ring, which I felt spoiled the feel of it. Have other people had that issue or was it just the one I tried?

Thx

Nick