What, people still use Cokin filters now? Isn't this rather like Volvo buying a buggywhip maker?

New AFL zooms for when you're in a hurry.
Old AFL primes for when you have more time.
And older glass has more 'character' (flaws).

Didn't HCB say, "Sharpness is a bourgeois conceit" ??

Lemmings don't jump off cliffs unless Disney's wranglers force them. BAD Disney!
My favorite is "Eat s**t, {your name here}! Fifty zillion flies can't be wrong!"
But I digress.

My comments over on PFC were:
1) I'm obviously out of the mainstream because I can't afford those top lenses.
2) I quibbled that 28mm isn't really 'wide' on APS-C, but that's no big thang.
3) Besides wide/tele/normal/portrait, a macro-lenses table would be interesting.

Yes, this poll reflects a self-selected sample who may or may not be truthful. Maybe the results reflect desires more than reality. Doesn't matter. 85% of polls are fun!

Looks like my dad after he switched Minoltas from TLR to SLR.

As for myself, it's myself, with an air of mystery. Shot with a webcam in a previous house (high above the Russian River north of San Francisco), PP'd to death with PaintShopPro3 during the last century. Still looks rather like me.

One of my favorites, HARRY OLIVER, wrote: It is a narrow minded person who thinks there is only one way to spell a word.

He also wrote, I never did learn how to spell,—but I did learn the typesetter's rule,—"Set up type as long as you can hold your breath without turning blue in the face, then put in a comma. When you gape, put in a semicolon, and when you want to sneeze, that's the time to make a paragraph."

Words to live by.

My original dSLR kit was the K20D, 360AF, DA10-17, DA18-250, and FA50/1.4. I now use a Tamron 10-24 more than the DA10-17, but otherwise that's still my most-used kit, 210+ lenses later. I've tried a two-lens kit of DA18-55 and Tamron 60-300 but such just interferes with all my shooting in the 30-70 range. I hate swapping lenses at 50mm.

I can't comment on the Sigma 18-250 other than to repeat hearsay of QC problems. I *can* heartily recommend the DA18-250 or its Tamron twin, both out of production but still available. The DA18-250 is my basic lens; all my others are specialty tools. If I know what I'm getting into, I'll use those specials. If I expect uncertainty, it's the DA18-250.

+Dioptre closeup lenses / adapters change the focus distance of a camera lens. The host lens' focal length determines the amount of magnification. Cheap meniscus closeup lenses are not corrected for aberrations; corrected lenses like Raynox provide better images, but the cheap ones are fun, and useful. The Raynox DCR-150 is +4.9 dioptre; the DCR-250 is +8. Dipotres are additive; stick a +2 onto a DCR-250 for a total of +10. Here is a table of dioptre strengths, and focus distances in inches and metric:

+1 >> 20-38" (500-950mm)
+2 >> 13-20" (330-500mm)
+3 >> 10-13" (250-330mm)
+4 >> 8--10" (205-250mm)
+5 >> 6.5-8" (165-205mm)
+6 >> 6-6.5" (153-165mm)
+8 >> 5" --- (127mm)
+10 > 4" --- (102mm)

A +1 adapter on a slow lens like the DA18-55 at 55mm turns it into an ultra-thin-DOF portrait lens. These adapters are very handy for shooting small 3D stuff where you don't care about the frame edges. +Dioptre lenses have other features, but that's enough for now. Ask me sometime about building a 35/0.8 lens from a stack of closeup adapters, eh?

Peoples, on or off streets: what they do, where they are, where they go, what traces they leave, how they react to each other. Everything else is pretty boring.

The best Rube EVAR!!!
At least in my limited experience.

Newer imaging systems and other technologies WILL come along. 3D/Holo, ultra-res, the high-speed video mentioned, extended spectra, light-field, minisensor arrays, much that I can't even think of. We currently use cameras still designed around filmic models. But we'll have more ways to capture, torture, disseminate, and display images Real Soon Now. How soon? I don't know. But even when the new devices are widely used, SLRs will still live. Hay, some people still use wet-plate technology! And blacksmiths will always make a living. Think of your dSLR as a horseshoer's anvil...