I've got an old Seiko light meter which works pretty well. But, why this when you have TTL metering which is normally very accurate?

Just tried it and it has a few problems, PSD support is useless and TIFF out of Lightroom screws up horribly. It won't accept that my hard disks are actually in my machine. Keeps asking me to insert my hard disk (C drive as it can't find it It is running off that bloody hard disk!

I hate the GUI on GIMP as I have to switch windows constantly which is very irritating. If it had 16-bit support I'd get used to it as it would be better then Elements 2 but at the moment it doesn't do anything that much better that I'd swap.

It was on a B&W image which made the transitions really weird. I think it is the way PS E2 handles TIFF because I did the same with PSD and no matter what colour space or bit level it is all fine.

I'd love to do some HDR blending but that isn't going to look very good in 8-bit.

Ah well, I'll live with the current limitations and save for something better. I wish GIMP was 16-bit or even 12-bit but that is a long way away.

I've not been shooting RAW very long, mostly from lack of disk space and previous lack of knowledge.

I was playing around with Lightroom and found a couple of photos which could have been much better. I'm learning quite fast and am trying to improve my portraiture skills. I noticed quite a few problems with the image which I thought I could correct in Photoshop. I have Elements 2 and I decided to see how good an 8-bit AdobeRGB TIFF would be and how well I could work with it.

Well, as soon as I opened the 8-bit copy in LR again I saw clear lack of tonal transitions. It was so bad that the image was absolutely useless. So off I go in search of a 16-bit editor only to discover only partial support in low end products and anything that actually supports it being way out of my price range.

Previously I've used PSD as my main format and exported in 16-bit which E2 then dithers to 8-bit with much better image quality.

Now, I'm not sure if it a problem with LR not exporting the image dithered correctly or E2 changing something along the way.

It may have something to do with colour space as well, but I'm quite confused as to where the problem lies as I've had no problems in the past working in 8-bit. Then again I've mostly worked from JPEG and not RAW.

Anyone got some suggestions for improving tonal transitions for/from an external editor?

(I'd love to get PS CS2/3 but that isn't realistic at the moment)

PS. All I wanted was to dodge some shadows (under eyes, I need a reflector really) and burn some highlights a little.

Well all the circular polarisers I've used, Hoya and Schneider, have made my LCD screen go completely black.

By the way, this only works on cold cathode backlit LCDs not newer LED displays as they don't need a polariser. I've tested this on my old and new(er) PDAs which have CCFL and LED backlights respectively.

People think that because it is digital there is a lot less work flow involved and anyone could do it. You may not spend time in the darkroom with chemicals but there is a lot to do once you finish a shoot and need to develop your files. It can take quite some time and effort to get right.

Warehouseexpress is good, never had any problems at all. There are a few places that are a little cheaper though for certain things.

I wish, Bigma with USM in K-mount *drool*

Out of stock everywhere.

I suspect that the ebay ones for ~450 are the ones that got stolen from SigmaUK.