You know - you really should ask the Photomonk why he steered me to the K-x for my first foray into DSLR territory.

We both had Kodak P&S [ at that time, and neither of us have now ] and he has DSLRs from errr ummm 2 different stables

I had been looking towards a Canon - and I've ended up with my gorgeous K-x on his recommendation.

Of the 13 there last week I could see at least 8 were DSLRs , 2 had not brought cameras , 1 brought a Fuji which was fairly small , had the look of a DSLR but I felt it was more like our old Fuji S5000 [ bridge ? ] - the others I couldn't see. We never even saw our tutor's camera - though he had been using it just before we arrived. OH and one had both DSLR, though that wasn't seen till we were supposed to download a picture onto the rather elderly PCs [ and of course being a MacHead I had no idea how to do that either ] and a P&S which was the one she was actually using .

One older guy [ yes, I think older than me ] is switching from film to digital so at least he has a good grasp of technicalities to start with.

OK - I ~think~ I've got the pic he wanted . It's been pouring for most of the night and of course I have a K-x, not a weatherproofed K7 [ faaaaaaar beyond my abilities ].

So I fled down to the bottom of my yard where I have a rhododenron bush and took a series of 4 pics whilst it was actually dry .

1) f5.6 shutter 1/60
2) f8 shutter 1/30
3) f16 shutter 1/8
4) f22 shutter 1/4

the differences between each successive pair and between 1 and 4 are very striking .

I kept the K-x in Av and just altered the F stop setting . Having seen the results in iPhoto I'm fairly content . I've at last got [ I think ] what he wanted me to get though I can't open up to f 2.8. Things can only get better from now

Maybe some of this is down to me , but not all by any manner of means

When I enrolled I was not given a chance to talk to the instructor - I was told that the beginners class was covering - how to switch on the camera , how to put the card in , and hot to press the button to take the photo and how to download it .

Last Monday was the first class - and he started straight in on Fstops - revising in about 2 secs and left me gasping - I did say I did not understand . I'm still struggling with the relationship between F stop and shutter speeds

BTW - you said Flower ?? in Scotland after a month of snow ?? I'll be lucky to find some green leaves .

As I said - I'm not giving in .

Yes - agreed and I now understand more of what he was wanting - but I really do object to having this sense of failure because :-

1) the lecturer has not asked us what kit we were using [ to my mind a huge mistake as we are learners ]

2) when I told him I didn't understand I was give instructions to put it into Av and move the wheel till it showed me that my f stop would be 2.8 , which I now understand is not possible with my lens.

The instruction about the homework was 1 picture with a shallow field and an f stop of 2.8.

The way I feel at present [ and yes I'm away out tomorrow to a local park with lots of bushes and trees ] I'm likely to tell him that he can choose whichever of my 31 pics [ maybe more than that after tomorrow ] and show everyone that I can't follow instructions .

Tomorrow I'm going to shoot at 55mm and an f stop of 5.6 as suggested by gartmore and see if I can get what he's after .

I'm really really frustrated . I do not accept defeat easily.

Thanks guys - you make me feel much better . He didn't actually ask us what we were using - I ~think~ from what he said he has a N...n but I could be wrong.

Until we have better [ ie warmer ] weather up here the 18-55 stays on the camera. Yes I can switch lenses , but thanks to various elbow dislocations and other fractures [ yeah - both arms ] in cold weather my sense of touch can go for a burton , so switching lenses is not a good idea except in the house , and I'm not 100% convinced that if I put the 50-200 on it would fit in my small Lowepro Bag.

Monday evening should prove interesting when I tell him I could not do as he wanted

Well today's walk with the K-x has been a disaster

I was told to put it in Av and shoot at an aperture of 2.8 - couldn't achieve that - nearest I could get until the very last 3 [ of 31 ! ] was 5.6. I played with the focal length a bit trying to get the subject as large as possible , but still retaining some background .

The last 3 pics I got at f4 and f3.5 - and I've done better with the Kodak C703 !!

I don't consider any of these to be keepers

OK - Kris = you are correct he's starting on ISO next week

Don = thanks - some of that is beyond me at present - but the basic info is going in - in conjunction with

Martin - the simple terminology that makes sense to me . I love your examples - written down for use in future - thank you

OK - so all being well tomorrow the K-x and I will go for a wee walk in the park and it will be interesting to see what I bring back from this .

OK - moving slightly sideways from the above - I need a bit more info.

Tomorrow as long as it's not disgusting, I intend to go and try and get my homework shot for this week It's something I got before on the P&S and is quite nice - if I manage it I should get the 'thing' in sharp focus and there is plenty of background stuff which should be nicely out of focus [ I hope ]

BUT where I will be, is near some running water which I'd also like to have a go at . If it's running fast , and I would expect it to be, I'll need to 'freeze' it - so that means a small aperture - Yes ? So how small is small ? bearing in mind I'm not totally doing this manually - he told me to use Av so I'll stick with that and it's still too cold for the 50-200m lens .

I'm not expecting these to be marvellous - but I'm using these ideas to try and get to grips with Aperture

BUT



Doesn't matter how long it's been in use , doesn't matter how many other devices use it .

The question still is - do Pentax agree with it's use ?

If they don't you are asking for trouble using them - Pentax will just say " tough luck - it's not supported by us "