Great set - I particularly love the monochromes .

Phil

Yes - looked like it was paired with the 18-135, but I could be wrong about that.

Phil

I use one as well, but you do have to clean it well before sticking in your bag! Is this a case of 'great minds...', or did someone suggest it here previously?

Phil

Some crackers there - particularly Nos 1 & 2, I love the glowing brake disc!

Phil

Nice set of portraits - 2 & 3 are my favourites.

Phil

I always shoot RAW so some processing is always involved. Normally just levels tweaks, the odd crop and straightening my (inevitable!) wonky horizon.

With my K-r I nearly always had dust spots to deal with, but I very rarely get these with K-5iis.

Phil

Welcome - I look forward to seeing some fantastic images from Canada.

phil

Good job! As others have said, I think the monos work particularly well.

Phil

Brian

I've just started using Lightroom as my Raw processor and tool for making basic adjustments to levels, colour balance, etc. For for detailed stuff i still use PSE (v. 12 in my case). While I'm still in the learning phase with Lightroom, I think that it has a lot going for it, BUT I will still need PSE (or similar) for some of the detailed stuff particularly around cloning. Lightroom is very good for organising images and making 'batch' changes to a number of images - it's far better than PSE for this.

Overall, I don't think that it's a case of one being clearly better than the other - they do slightly different things, but are complimentary.

Phil

As John pointed out 'weather resistant' doesn't mean weather proof. However, that being said I still think that you've been very unlucky.

I've used used my K-5iis in heavy rain, driving snow and temperatures as low as -30C and never had a problem (except that at very low temperatures battery life is VERY short!!). Mind you, when I go out and I know that it's going to be wet, I follow GrumpyGrandPa's advice and always keep the camera inside a waterproof bag inside my backpack, as backpacks always leak eventually.

I hope that your bad luck didn't spoil what must have been an amazing experience.

Phil