jackitec

Thanks for the link, some great shots there. I love the spirals, and the two pyramid shots (ancient and modern) caught my eye too.

My entry. Captured at Ightham Mote in Kent. Pentax K10D + FA43mm. Shot at 1/500 f5.6

I really like the sand patterns too. The first is my favourite.

This was the country home of the writer Virginia Woolf and her husband. Now run by the National Trust. It is only a small house but well worth seeing, and has a beautiful garden containing a "studio" where she would write. A wet and overcast day today unfortunately.

Pete

Stopping down below f11/f16 is going to make your image suffer from diffraction. Most lenses are sharpest somewhere between 4.0 and 8.0.

The 18-55 lens is the best any manufacturer sells as a kit lens. You need to stop down to around f8 to get the best from this lens, but as a general purpose lens it is a cracker for the price. As you get more experienced you will want to move on from it (for a faster and sharper one), but dont make the mistake that if your pictures are'nt that great at the moment it is because you have a cheap lens on your camera. Have a look at some of my recent Sissinghurst posts and the thread devoted to the standard lens to see what I (and others) mean.

As a "newbe" to digital there is a lot to learn, not least about camera settings and post processing software settings. Any digital image straight from a DSLR without sharpening applied (either in-camera or with software will look soft(unsharp), it is the nature of the technology.

Best wishes Martin.

Max

I would avoid buying the cards on ebay. Cheaper for sure.....but the genuine article ?

Have a look here http://www.carpelux.net/cat/leverage

If this is your problem the viewfinder should be very dark as any lens you mount will not have an open aperture for viewing.

It sound like the little spring which activates the stop-down mechanism has come out of its slot. This happened to my K10 about a year ago. it is possible to re-seat it yourself, but when I tried it, it just came off altogether, and I got it fixed under warranty.

I will try and find you a thread on another forum which deals with this problem.

Actually just as easy to look through the lens when on the camera, and activate the DOF lever or take a 1 sec exposure....you will see if the lens stops down or not.

Have you changed the focus screen by any chance ?