Not really wanting to start the superzoom debate but I did try the "best of the bunch" Tamron 18-250 and personally couldn't live with it from an IQ point of view compared to my Pentax DA17-70 or the DA 55-300 - this is very much a personal thing though as many people obviously are very happy with them so that's enough of that from me.

Having got that out of the way the 18-250 is widely seen as the best option by some margin so it might well be worth pushing the budget if at all possible. If this isn't possible then the alternatives will probably produce similar results to your kit lens (only a guess as I haven't used them)so perhaps the DA55-300 makes more sense, if budget is tight the DAL version is worth a look - the Tamron 70-300 mentioned already is definitely worth thinking about the only downside being it produces more PF/CA than the Pentax options, just as sharp though

Simon

Simon

My thoughts exactly

Thanks for the feedback - this is definitely a location I'll be revisiting in better lighting. The only problem is that I think that the 1st shot in particular will be very difficult in anything but high sun as it's surrounded on 3 side by trees - I was stood in the middle of them to take this shot.

I've had a slight play with the processing, converted a couple to B&W - what do you think?

thanks

Simon

[IMG]http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e68/STKITCHIN/IMGP0894_bw.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e68/STKITCHIN/IMGP0920_bw.jpg[/IMG]

I voted no to the poll but purely because having just bought the K5 I have everything I need. Hopefully the Ricoh takeover will have more positive effects than the Hoya one. I suppose they may change the brand name but Ricoh doesn't have any standing in the DSLR market so maybe not.

Simon

FA 35mm F2, just bought a used one myself and it's excellent

Simon

Went for a wander around the abandoned Dinorwic slate quarry above Llanberis yesterday, unfortunately I climbed up the wrong side of the quarry so missed the best of the abandoned buildings, here are a few shots from the day.

Anglesey Barracks



Llyn Peris

For some reason I can't really figure I left this shot on my PC unprocessed for 3yrs, it was shot in October 2007, only edited it recently. I've updated my website now with the details - always like to make the most of any opportunity

Simon

Just bumping this one

Simon

The regional shortlists have been published on the photography competition website now, although no mention of the regional winners yet despite us being contacted and having just received the official invite from Buck Palace to the garden party on the 6th July:

Anyway here's my winning entry, fingers crossed for next week - looks like I might get chance to have a chat with Charlie Waite as he's one of the 3 judges who'll be there on the day

http://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/article/the-county-winners-of-the-national-cou...

Just a quick comment on my newly acquired K5. Having at last had chance to put it to good use yesterday I'm now 100% convinced that the move from K20D to K5 was well worthwhile.

I had a wander around the Dinorwic Slate quarry above Llanberis during the day and took a range of shots in pretty varied lighting, quite a bit of contrast to deal with. I shot several with -2.5 stops EV to capture detail in the sky and having quickly processed one or two of them the K5 really is impressive at allowing shadow detail to be "lifted", even at Iso 100/200 there's no discernable noise despite adding 2-3 stops of "fill light".

I'll post a couple of examples when I get chance.

On a slight negative I have noticed that whilst the viewfinder may show 100% of the scene, my final image is actually a slightly cropped version of this so I need to allow a little extra around the edges of the frame when composing the shot if I have important detail etc. The K20D was the other way around - I always ended up with more in the final version that I saw through the viewfinder - no real problem just something to get used to!!


Simon