Of course I could be pedantic and say that, short of shooting the Sun, pretty much all light is reflected in one way or another. But I won't...

I was in centre spot mode, which may have helped. I'd also positioned myself to get the sun's reflections off the bubbles as they're pretty uninteresting without the "sparkles" and that probably helped too.

As an added bonus I got a few specks of soap on the lens for my trouble - one time a daylight filter would have been useful. Still, it's nice and clean now...

I was out and about on London's South Bank this afternoon (near the Wheel). There was a chap entertaining tourists - and me with my K10D and 16-45 - by making vast soap bubbles.

I was very impressed with how the camera managed to focus accurately on something that is so transparent:




I put one in B&W and I'm quite pleased with the result, after pushing contrast, etc, quite hard.




As ever, any criticism or suggestions appreciated, though I'm not sure how often I'll be taking bubble photos...

After my initial "I don't care, I'm sure my K10D will still be serving me well" I thought a bit more about this.

The K10D allows one user defined combination of shooting and post-processing options. As more in-camera processing becomes possible I can see people creating more complex user-defined settings, skins if you like. Things like facial recognition software and post-processing options will make these much more than just a combination of exposure and processing parameters and more advanced than the scene modes you get on most compacts. Then I expect it to become possible to extract these from a camera and share them on the web, or just download new ones from the camera manufacturers' websites.

Instead of borrowing peoples photoshop techniques and trying our own arty processing, we'll be able to download other people's "skins" and take our own photographs using them.

I'm not saying I want anything like this, I'm just trying to guess what may happen.

More by accident than design, I applied the rule of 600 to my eclipse shot - divide 600 by your focal length to get the longest exposure in seconds that can be made without obvious star trails. I used my 50-200 zoom, at 200, and with a 3 second exposure. Plus tripod, mirror lock-up and noise-reduction (which I think is dark frame subtraction in the K10D).

Also, a friend of mine down in Surrey took an almost identical shot, with identical blurring/star trails with her C*non D30 (not sure what lens). So it could be that we just didn't have particularly good seeing that night. My shot is a 100% crop too, which is always fairly unforgiving.

Next time is Feb 21st 2008, but at 3 am. I'll be having another go, and hopefully I'll have learned the K10D a bit more by then.

The best I could manage of the eclipse was this:




K10D + 50-200. Tripod mounted (but just my el cheapo Jessop's tripod). I'd also under-exposed a bit and had to bump it up in ACR. Still, an educational experience and I'll be back next year for the next one.

I was reasonably pleased with this moon shot - K10D plus 50-200.




Hand-held, F11 and 1/40. I live in North London and the back of my flat (from where this was taken) overlooks a floodlit car park, so planets, the moon and the brightest stars are all I can usually see.

And yes, I'll be out there tomorrow for the lunar eclipse, assuming it's not cloudy.

Thanks for the tips - space ahead of the subject is a good one.

In the end I didn't take the K10D up the hill; the weather was pretty murky most of the time and I seemed to have forgotten how to ski. However, I got one or two decent shots with it around the village. I'm quite keen on this one. As ever, any criticism is welcome:

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=363717652&size=o

K10D + 16-45.

I'm off skiing at the weekend (Whistler if you're wondering, so there will be some snow) and I'll be taking my K10D (plus 16-45 and 50-200 lenses).

One of the things I'd like to have a go at is taking panning shots of my companions as they whizz past me. Anyone have any recommendations for shutter speeds, apertures, focus modes, etc ?

My thinking is I'd need about 1/60 and F11 or so (and use TAv to let the K10D decide the ISO). Not forgetting +1.5 exposure to take the snow into account. Oh and anti-shake off and continuous drive in the hope I move smoothly for at least one shot. I think it will be easier if I'm some distance (10-20 meters) from the subject too.

Normally one can faff about (I love digital preview) with a few practice shots but of course I won't get that opportunity.

Obviously I'll post any decent results here. And thanks in advance.

I've had my K10D for about two weeks - it's my first DSLR and I've been without an SLR for about 6 years (I had a trusty old Minolta X300 for about 15 years before that).

Currently I feel a bit like a pilot who's had a couple of lessons in a Cesna and finds himself flying the space shuttle. I'm sure I'll get to grips with it in time and it is easy to play about and change things, I'm just slightly overwhelmed by the options available.

Regarding sharpness - I have taken some amazingly detailed and sharp photos with it (I have the 16-45 F4 and 50-200 F3.5-5.6 lenses) and some murky, unsharp poor definition shots. I'm quite sure it's not the camera that's at fault. Also, I was hoping to get to use it over Christmas but it's been heavily overcast and miserable in the UK so I'm not surprised some of my results have not been all that good.

That said, I'm off skiing in 10 days where I hope to get some decent, sunny landscape and action shots. I have no worries about how sharp they'll be. I'll also be relying on two things - I hardly ever fall over and the K10D is built like a tank...

Oh and I bought the camera to take photos, not to pixel-peep or test it beyond reason.

Hello all. I'm joining the Pentax crowd having just pre-ordered a K10D.

I had a Minolta X300 (to replace a stolen X700) for many years, but it finally died around 5 years ago. I've been surviving with a Canon Powershot S40 but have been increasingly feeling it's limitations, much as I like it's convenience. An autofocus D-SLR is going to be a leap forward, never mind the rest of the bells and whistles...

I was going to buy a Minolta D7. Then a Nikon D70. Then the Sony Alpha's IS sold me, until I played with one and found it a bit plasticky. Plus it won't take my old Minolta glass (which really isn't much cop) and I'd rather buy a camera from a camera company

The K10D ticks all my boxes and with the sensitivity modes it was the obvious choice. I'm probably a fairly typical of people attracted to Pentax by the K10D and I'm sure Pentax will succeed with it.

Oh and I went for the 16-45 F4 and 50-200 F4-5.6 lenses and I'm now on the lookout for a fast, wide prime for occasions when the 16-45 is too big. LBA - you betcha. Let's not get into lens web surfing addiction.

I've been a lurker on here for a while but having finally put my hand in my pocket I thought I'd join the fray.