These are really cool. Like the second one best I think. My only criticism is the reflections in the bubble are a tiny bit distracting.

What techniques do people use for recreating the look of black and white filters?

There are a lot of techniques and plug-ins, and in-camera options, but I always struggled with noise in my black and white shots, esp the skies.

I wondered whether restricting the actual light going to the sensor with a physical filter (and therefore requiring a longer exposure) would be better than removing information gathered by the sensor after the shot was taken.

I had a little experiment tonight, with an orange filter, and the digital orange black and white filter setting on my K200D. There was much less noise with the physical filter. Tellingly the exposure was 1/15 with the physical filter attached rather than 1/45 using the digital setting.

I have increased the contrast on the following crops by the same amount, to slightly exaggerate the noise:

Physical:



Digital:

Yes. For me, the Tokina wins on resolution and contrast - especially at the edges, but the Pentax wins on controlling glare. Maybe a DIY lenshood for the Tokina would help, lol.

The Pentax is delivering a warmer colour but stupidly I left the AWB on, and in any case WB can be tweaked in RAW, so that doesn't really mean anthing!

Digital and all its auto settings... actually isn't it easier to learn the basics of f-stop, shutter speed, and ISO, than get your head round all these hundreds of newfangle features/modes? With the two basic principles of shutter speed and aperture, and of course a good eye, you've basically got photography licked. It's not rocket science, but the menu system on most DSLRs is!

Edit - Oh, and an understanding of light as well of course!

Now I have worked out how to use M lenses manually with the DOF preview lever, and have the 18-55mk II, I have been able to do a comparison, taking a picture of the inside of my boat with both lenses. I probably should have tidied up first.

f11/4secs/ISO 200

Tokina



Pentax



Tokina



Pentax



Tokina



Pentax

If Sony is ITV, what's Pentax?

Dammit! Wish I had known that on Weds when I ordered my mkII!

Yes, this is the friendliest forum of them all. Forums are too often places where people go to grind their personal axes... not so much here.

Best to use 2800s, minimum. I've done a fair bit of shooting and playing about with the camera on since Monday, and still showing full charge.

Remember those CF card sized things that had an actual disc inside (I think) and held a whole gigabyte? That wasn't that long ago really!