Thanks Stuey,

Some of the ships were there Friday evening, together with lots of burger stands which spoiled photo opportunities quite a bit so I was pleased to get one shot at least.

Looks like it will be a great event Stuey, allow plenty of time though as it took me 45 minutes just to get from the tunnel to Albert Dock and it wasn't anywhere near as busy as it's going to be tomorrow..in fact it it was me I'd catch the ferry across from the Wirral

Have a great day

Simon

Thanks Deryn,

It was 0.6s although I put the iso up to 400 as it was quite busy and I wanted the shot with no people..apart from Billy Fury on the right

What do you think of the starburst moon, I'm not quite sure about it to be honest

Simon

A photograph of Albert Dock in Liverpool taken whilst having a wander around last night

Simon

I didn't try the 17-50 in the end, I considered it when replacing my previous Sigma 17-70 a few years ago but having owned a Tamron 70-300 at one time decided that I would go with the Pentax, mainly as I much prefer the colour/contrast rendition of Pentax lenses over the alternatives.

Sorry if you've already given this some thought but it's easy to just consider sharpness when thinking about lens IQ but contrast and colour rendition play a big part too...certain lenses do produce significantly more pleasant "in-camera" images than others because of this.


Simon

I've bought and sold again several lenses over the last few years of Pentx ownership and if I'd had the benefit of hindsight I'd have pretty much the ones I have now...

DA12-24 - very low distortion & very sharp, sharper than both the DA21mm & DA15mm - great for landscapes or architecture

DA17-70 - highly underrated IMHO. Excellent colour/contrast and sharp too

50mm - there are several very good options here, mainly use it for portraits

DA21mm - when I want to travel light

I haven't added a telephoto, although I do own the DA55-300 which is a good consumer lens...for me this is one of the weak areas of the Pentax range though

Simon

I certainly agree with Sports, I think the weakness in the Pentax line-up now is more to do with specialist lenses than it is to do with capable bodies (obviously full frame being the exception to this), which is where it can't compete with the likes of Canon.

I don't agree on the landscapes comment though, infact I think entirely the opposite..for me Pentax bodies and their lens line-up seem more designed with the landscape photographer in mind...excellent dynamic range of the K5, weather proofing, solid build, plenty of wide angle lenses.

I'm reluctant to move from Pentax as I find the functionality of their bodies is really well thought out too..running photography workshops means I often need to get to grips with the Nikon & Canon models and I haven't come across one as yet that's as intuitive or functional as the K5.


Simon

Oh, thought it looked like York Railway Museum

Simon

It's a purely personal decision so this isn't going to help but I don't see any problem in the images the K5 produces, infact I'm still impressed by the detail it captures and handles PP very well so I'm not convinced that the finished/processed images would be any better with a K5 or a K5iis.

Personally I'm hanging around a little while longer with the K5 to see if full frame does come along, I'm still unsure as to whether I'd go with it anyway but if they manage to squeeze a full frame sensor into a K5 size body I'm much more likely to, although this obviously wouldn't be my only criteria

Simon

Good job they've done too..any sign of the Flying Scotsman whilst you were there?

Simon

It does really depend on a couple of things..budget & how often you're likely to use them.

If you have a decent budget then no question in my mind, go with Lee..I've been the Cokin & Hitech route before and there is some truth in the saying "you get what you pay for", Lee are very good quality and don't produce casts like my previous filters did. If you are on a budget then Hitech are the ones to go for, still decent quality and behave a little better than Cokin when it comes to color casts.

If you're starting from scratch get a wide filter holder as it will cover all your lenses, prsent & future, without vignetting. To get you started go with the Hard edge NDgrads, on crop sensors they are ideal for 90% of situations, I rarely use my Soft grads...a 2 & 3 stop will cover most things too, don't bother with a 1 stop.

Simon