Hi John

I have the Sigma 10-20 f4-5.6 and love the lens, but I recently bought the DA15 and have found the lower weight to suit me if I'm walking around a hot city all day.

If weight isn't an issue (470g vs 212g) then the Sigma gives the possibility of a wider field of view at a much lower purchase price.

Personally I find the DA15 to suit me better and may have to sadly sell the Sigma...

If you would like to see some photo's I've taken with both lenses, you can see them here. Each photo will tell you which lens.

Good luck!

I have this tripod and have had no problems. Yet...!

It's clearly not the sturdiest tripod on the market; I guess the laws of physics have a big part to play and a bigger, heavier tripod will almost always be sturdier than a smaller, lighter one.

Having said that it is light, easy to set up and flexible in regard to the angle of legs and the height you can set the camera (including upside down if you want to get really close to the floor) and I've found it plenty sturdy enough.

First of all well done to all entries and in particular to Fran, Russell and Paul with their first entries. I know what a daunting experience it is putting your photo’s out there to be critiqued! The overall standard is high, as expected, so I hope I can do the judging aspect justice… I’m aiming to be constructive with any comments. I hope I get the balance right but please feel free to tell me if you don’t agree with what I say (he says with much trepidation :shock

Fran/Frankie
I very much like the idea of contrasting the two different states of water by having one sharp and the other blurred.

Dan/dannyh
Great use of depth of field to still be able to see her face yet having the extreme background blurred further. I would personally have preferred either the ring or the outstretched finger in sharp focus.

Chris/milamber
Wow, lots of bokeh! Nice colours too. For me the bokeh in the foreground is distracting though.

Kevin/Frogfish
Beautiful colours and lights. I would have preferred the glass to be sharper.

Russell/Sphere
Good use of bokeh. Perhaps some more colour in the reflections within the glass would have added a nice further touch?

Will/Pentaxophile
I love the story this picture tells. Who is the ‘person’ on the other side of the road? What is the connection between the two of them? Without the bokeh, I don’t think this picture would work. Nice title too!

Jon/prsjnb
Lovely effect and colours. Definitely fun!

Judith/JudithAnn
Another lovely use of a strong, sharp foreground subject with great bokeh effect of the rest of the bunch. Beautiful roses, a lucky girl!

Paul/Pjwebbs
Another good idea and, of course, relevant to this forum! I think this is another good example of an image that would not work without the bokeh.

Glyn/GlynM
Very clever idea and execution. Beautifully lit subject and gorgeous colours.

Patrick/dinneenp
Another clever idea where the bokeh makes the image that much more interesting. I like the way you’ve controlled the depth of field to the extent that only one bottle is sharp, but should we see all of that bottle?

Gary/bassman
Beautiful colours, pin sharp and lovely composition. The blurred background ensures your focus and attention is on the bird.

Lesley/Lilly
Great example of using bokeh to enhance a picture. Lovely foreground and an enigmatic story created by not being able to see the characters in the background clearly. Beautiful light and shadows too.

Simon/simonarron
Another beautiful bird. Lovely colours, lighting and I love the shadow from his/her bill. I’m sure we all love the sound of a Robin singing and this captures that moment perfectly. Unfortunately another photo where, for me, the foreground bokeh detracts from the rest of the image though.

Anthony/TOZZA27
Lovely demonstration of depth of field. The colours make me think of spring and the lighting is lovely and subtle.

George/geordie01
Beautiful bird. I would have never have guessed it was a Cormorant with the colour picked up by the sun!

Wow, this is so difficult…but I have to decide…

Winner of Fortnightly Competition 87: bokeh is Lesley/Lilly!

Second Place: Will/Pentaxophile

Third Place: Gary/Bassman

Congratulations to Lesley and it’s over to you to decide the subject of the next competition and judge accordingly!

Really, really well done to all. Genuinely, it was a tough decision and I hope you all enjoyed entering.

Best regards,

Simon

I bought the ThinkTank Retrospective 10 in 'pinestone' last summer. It will comfortably hold my K-5 with a Sigma 10-20 and the two WR kit lenses, 18-55 and 50-200 plus room for a guide book, wallet and a number of other small items you may wish to carry. I picked this because I wanted something that didn't look like a camera bag, nor too large that it would become a burden to carry around.

I found it to be very good; features like the option to use the velcro or not and the flexibility of the storage mean I would definitely recommend it.

If you're interested in this bag why not have a look here and if you have any questions please feel free to ask!

Important update...

As I will be away on holiday when the competition is due to close the consensus is to extend the closing date by a further week. I hope this extra week means my job will be that much harder with the extra submissions!

The competition will now close at 18.00GMT on 29th February.

Although I put a link to the rules in the first post, could I please clarify that all images should be taken during the period of the competition and not before.

Thank you and again, best of luck!

Thank you all so much for the positive feedback and support. If there are no objections I'll suggest we move the closing date back a week and as has been noted perhaps the upside will be more high quality submissions!

I'll edit the entries topic, but to confirm the closing date for this competition is now 18.00GMT on 29/2/2012.

My big concern is doing this justice. I don't have a laptop so would have probably have to view the images on an iPhone. I know the resolution isn't that high but they still don't look great on such a small screen. And then finally there's the time I would want to apply to this out of respect for the entries and entrants. Sitting in a noisy bar with my buddies after a hard day on the mountain to get wifi is clearly less than ideal!

The last thing I want to do is do this badly and definitely don't want to upset or offend anyone, but if everyone is happy for me to do the best job I can with the 'limitations' I am happy to proceed. I could even still judge the competition and give a brief reason for my decision and add to this upon my return on the following Sunday. Of course, there are many far better and more experienced photogrpaherers contributing to this site snd if they have the time and inclination to critique the entries that will be at least as valuable, probably more!

Please feel free to discuss this fortnights competition here.

I'll start by asking for a recommendation; I hardly expected to win the previous competition and so certainly didn't plan ahead for the fact that I'll be in the middle of a weeks snowboarding when it closes.

Should/could somebody else perform judging responsibilities (I wouldn't consider myself qualified to pass judgment anyway!) or does it become whatever you call a three week period (three weeks?) and run over three weeks?

Suggestions on a digital postcard gratefully received.

"In photography, bokeh is the blur, or the aesthetic quality of the blur, in out-of-focus areas of an image, or "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light." Differences in lens aberrations and aperture shape cause some lens designs to blur the image in a way that is pleasing to the eye, while others produce blurring that is unpleasant or distracting—"good" and "bad" bokeh, respectively." Wikipedia

As someone new to a SLR or DSLR camera, bokeh is a new and fascinating part of photography. I really hope to see some interesting treatments!

My final comment is just that I think bokeh should enhance and add to a strong image, so please, no pure bokeh and nothing else! I just hope I'm not the only one of that opinion and we get no entries...

Anyone still wishing to enter should do so abiding by the usual rules.

All to be taken with Pentax or Samsung clone cameras.
The competition closes 18.00 GMT Wednesday 22nd February.

Best of luck everybody!

Um, gosh, not sure what to say but thank you, thank you, thank you! I know I was very lucky to capture such a lovely scene with my first outing with the DA15, I just hope it's not downhill from here!

I too enjoyed the other entries and would like to say well done to all. With the later sunrise at this time of year I'm surprised more entries weren't posted.

Bjorn, you should see how much it's changed. I've lived here for just four years, but the people I know are very proud that the quayside, an area that has been described to me as 'no go' a few years back, is now such an integral part of a wonderful city.

Now, thinking cap on for the next competition...