As an aside, have a think about adding off camera flash to your indoor shots; it's excellent for getting sharp, evenly lit images with kids running around. You can simply set the flash up to bounce off a wall or ceiling, or even an umbrella or softbox, and then set it off using one of those cheap chinese Ebay flash triggers. It's dead easy.

Some shots with the Tamron indoors -

f5.6 with bounced flash -




f2.8 with window light only







f3.2 with off camera flash, used as a portrait lens at 50mm




I have owned the DA21mm - I think it's a great street lens, it has a lovely clarity. I found myself wanting something wider though and sold it.

I have the Tamron 17-50 f2.8; it wants for nothing in the IQ department, in my opinion! Small, light and inexpensive too.

The Sigma 18-35mm f1.8 might be the best option for your purposes, but I've read that some copies of the lens suffer AF issues. You might want to try a copy from somewhere with a generous returns policy. It does give the quality of a fast prime lens throughout it's range though.

You can send a URL to download an entire album.

Flickr isn't really about showing images to clients though is it, it's a repository; if the merger means you can seamlessly add images from your Flickr to your Smugmug portfolio that would be good. I hope they don't have plans to charge users or turn Flickr into something more complicated than it needs to be.

Lovely shot of Finlay... aww he's getting on a bit bless him, I remember your pictures of him 'when he were just a pup...

Free 'legacy version' of Photoshop CS2 here - https://www.techspot.com/downloads/3689-adobe-photoshop-cs2.html

Opens RAW dng files via a simple but easy to use interface. Only problem is you have to work on each one individually and save a copy.

Thank you Kris. I had an inkling you might be able to help - much appreciated.

Does anyone know of anyone that can do repairs on old manual focus lenses? (Or would anyone on the forum like to have a go for me?!)

I was going through some boxes in the cellar, and sadly found that my lovely K 135/2.5 had been stashed in the pocket of a bag I had been using to carry my flash gear. Checking the lens against a light source, fungus has started to set in - something I've never seen before... I thought I would disassemble the front element (the only one affected by the fungus) and clean it myself. Unfortunately there is a shallow dent on the filter thread, so I could only unscrew the front ring so far before it got stuck.

For a specialist with all the tools at hand it would probably be an easy thing to deal with, but I feel like I've gone as far as I can with it. Are there any people out there who could have a look at this for me; obviously the lens is worth about £120 so it's only worth doing if reasonably economical.

Manual focus 24mm lens, 'fair condition'; works well though. Note there are a couple of faint smudges to the front element coating. Doesn't seem to affect image quality; please see the full size image samples in the Flickr album below. (The exif data reports 85mm; I just forgot to set the focal length in camera...)

Sigma 24mm f2.8 Album





£30 inc UK delivery.

If you want to try the Sigma 24mm f2.8, I am thinking of selling mine. I'm thinking of asking £30 inc p&p. It's the manual focus version. It's not in amazing condition but still works great.