I'd always go for a manual flash, but that's just my personal preference - I like to set things up myself. Yongnuo 460ii flashes seem to be the budget strobe of choice these days. All fully manual of course.

Ckeck out Minolta 4000AFs though - they can be had very very cheap, offer manual power settings, are safe to use etc. They're what I use.

Bump. Can't afford a DA18-135mm? This will do instead! Kind of....

I love to see red and magenta together like that!

Agreed, but I wouldn't say they are easier to change the shutter speed quickly on!

I should have said Pentamirror, where I said Pentaprism in my post above - sorry about that

You can't argue with the colour. It would have looked great against that slivery green plant to the left.

I like the first three a lot. The framing on the fuchsia shot is a bit dodgy IMHO! (As an aside, I remember our plant science lecturer discussing the pronunciation of 'Fuschia'... it was named after a botanist called Fuchs... as in rhymes with 'ducks'... so Fuchsia ought to be pronounced.... oh figure it out!)

DO bother with film. The results are still great and it will need to shoot a lot of films to catch up with what the big boys with their K5ii's have spent ;P

Plus you'll be able to brag that you are shooting 'full frame' ;P

Here's one I shot on my z70, using the DA35/2.4 (just a 'family snapshot): http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3698/9693785744_22de067480_c.jpg

To me it just has a nicer look than the equivalent shot on digital crop. Probably mainly the shallower DOF rendering giving the image more of a 3D look.

I would look for one of the flagship PZ series cameras, and if you plan on using AF and therefore don't mind a pentaprism viefinder, any of the budget PZ series will do as well.

Very easy and quick to change aperture / shutter speed settings, via a thumb dial, just like a DSLR.

Cheers chaps. I really enjoyed this shoot, and the DA50-135 - love love love it!

Actually you could be onto something there Doctor O.

The image unsettles me, but if that was the intention, it's a success!