Good comments about high ground, David.
You've given plenty of locations for other Forum Members to post shots from now

And thanks for the info on UKsteaminfo.

Peter

Many thanks for all your comments and contributions.

Interesting to see what you found about the PLM, Bill.
I can certainly vouch for it being very fast and silent - so much so that you just don't notice what's happening - things just appear in focus as soon as you touch the back button or the shutter release.
The shots above and those posted recently were all shot with AF 5 points, and it's interesting to see how, in the shot above, it looked through the trees to focus on the Mill building (note the OoF branches in front of the Mill).

I also tried some 300mm BiF shots when a kite appeared way overhead and whilst it needed me to point exactly in the right direction to lock on the bird instead of the clouds, once I was near it locked on straight away with no 'hunting' like the old screw driven lens used to do. Unfortunately since the kite was very high in the sky, there was a cold wind blowing the combined effect on the camera and my hands meant they results were not worthy of public viewing ! However, I'm hopeful for the future.

I've updated the firmware on my K50 so that can also take the PLM lens and will do some comparison shots sometime to compare the K50 with the K70 ?

Peter

I have been most impressed by the performance of my new 55-300PLM on my K70 so when I gave it an outing this week I tried shots at various zoom settings.
In particular, when I took the shot of Mapledurham Mill (posted on the Gallery) I also took a shot at the 300mm full zoom. When I reviewed the image at 'Actual Pixels' I was amazed at how much fine detail had been recorded.

Below is this shot and below that a 100% crop of the centre/left area :-







In the original image viewed on my monitor the grain in the timber cladding is now shown and the small items over the door are revealed as a security light (where the pattern in the glass is almost discernable) and above that is a sign clearly indicating CCTV.

I haven't checked the distance but the mill must have been around 200m from where I was standing ?

Peter

Many thanks for taking part, David.

It's great shot and I'm hoping they will still be running some steam services when we visit the area in the Autumn ?

You also reminded me that high ground is also a good place to see several counties at once.
Local to us there are places where we can see Hampshire and Oxfordshire from Berkshire.

Best regards
Peter

Here is the view looking upstream from the one posted above.




What 'cross county' shots do you have ?

Peter

Having seen WaypointCharlie's excellent 'cross county' shot it occurred to me that there are many places where counties are separated by rivers.
In my local case this is the Thames which separates Oxfordshire from Berkshire.

I've posted one 'cross county' shot taken yesterday and another is included here.
This one is taken further upstream from Mapledurham Lock looking back towards the Mill shown in the Gallery shot.
Mapledurham Church and House are behind the Mill, on the right, and some cottages in Mapledurham Village can be seen through the trees on the left.
The white sided vessel is The African Queen, a hotel/restaurant boat which is kept here during the winter months before making cruises up to London during the season.




What can our other Forum Members offer - THAT is the challenge !
Peter

And again from me
Peter

They all have their merits - it just depends on personal favourites and I suppose I tend to favour the sepia ones?

However, it goes to show what a bit of creative artistry can do !

Best regards
Peter

I haven't had a chance to give it a good try out yet but I did test out the WiFi today using the Ricoh Image Sync App on my iPhone5 - and it is GOOD !

If you have a Smart phone then you don't need any other remote !

The App gives you a remote Live View on the camera and you can also change exposure settings from the camera before focusing and shooting.

I'm looking forward to using the feature to get some shots of the very timid woodpeckers that visit our garden - I can set the K70 up on a tripod, hide out of view with camera in hand and shoot at the best moment. Well that's the theory - you'll have to keep an eye on the Gallery to see if I'm successful.

Thanks for the comments and good luck.

Best regards
Peter

According to Wikipedia there are 29 locks at Caen.
You know what's going to happen next, someone is going to say they've done the biggest flight in the U.K. at Tardebigge with 30 locks !

Regards,
Malcolm

Yes that's right, Malcolm.
Whilst the main flight is 29 locks there are more between Devizes Marina and the start of the main descent and a few more afterwards before you get going freely.
So it depends how you look at it (and whether you are an angler describing 'the one that got away' !)

Best regards
Peter