Is that Practical Photography? Bugger, I subscribed for 6 months a couple of weeks ago

I get Practical Photography and on occasion Digital Photo and Digital Camera. To be honest I know they repeat their content every 6 months or so, but I like Digital Photo, I find I learn some tiny nuance of PS with the videos on the cover-disk every month, even if it's nothing groundbreaking. What does irritate me though is the way they wail on Pentax - I know this is nothing new, everyone does it, but when they do their kit reviews of stuff they stack them up beside all the others, praise the kit and then give it a shockingly low mark for no discernable reason apart from the odd 'Menus look dated' or something equally subjective/banal. The worst one was this month or last month where they tested the cameras themselves and the K20 was clearly producing shots that were superior to all except the Nikon D90 and you couldn't really tell the difference between those two, the text freely admitted that it was at least as good as the D90 and then the D90 got 5 stars and the K20 got 4 stars - the same as *all* the others. It's blatant bias, and as a Pentaxian you accept that as a simple fact of life, but what is unforgivable is that it puts the wrong impression into the heads of people who don't know any better and might genuinely have been prepared to give all brands a try.

Oh blimey, sorry about the hijack/rant.

I did check that (believe me, I wouldn't put it past me to forget something that basic! ) but all was as it should be. I have just taken a load of test shots with my 16-45 and they seem to be ok, I'll pop the FA50 on at lunchtime and repeat the shots to see if perhaps it's the lens?

Hi folks,

I have just noticed something that's causing me a little concern. Ever since last Saturday when I tried out all those lovely lenses at the SRS open day I have been noticing that quite a lot of my pictures are coming out completely OoF. This is not something that has happened before, I've only had my K20 a month or so but it's always been absolutely bang on. It's not possible that one of those lenses (the prototype DA* 60-250 for instance) could have discombobulated my AF somehow is it?

Cheers,

V.

Last time I went into a Jessops I needed a filter ring and wasn't sure if they had them, so I asked the spotty yoof behind the counter if they had any; he cogitated for a moment and replied "What size do you want, Canon or Nikon?". Lost for words I walked out.

Thanks Mannesty, I'm glad it's not just me being rubbish, I was happy with taking a shot in the prevaling conditions with the card and correcting from that in PP, but it was the in camera thing that threw me, I assumed I could use the grey card for that too. Well, you learn something every day.
I'm still clueless about why you can set the 'White' balance in PP either using something properly white or 18% grey, but I giuess some things will always be 'magic' to the likes of me!
Great pictures, by the way.

I bought a 18% grey card the other day after hearing how you can use it set white balance and I was surprised that I can't use it to set custom WB in camera - I know about using it as a 'white' reference in PP (I still don't understand that) but all attempts to set in camera WB off it resulted in being told 'NG'.
This is where you all roll your eyes and groan at the clueless newbie...

I was there early on and it was fabulous to play with some lenses I'll never be able to afford. Wish I'd been there a bit longer, I could have tried them *all* out! I liked the DA*60-250, my first experience of SDM on a lens, no quicker to focus but totally silent, I think the optics must have been grubby as all the images were slightly smeared, but on the whole I liked it. Not the same that (to my astonishment) can be said for the DA*55 - really didn't get on with it, slow to focus and the focal point wandered all over the shop, didn't get a single good shot with it, my FA 50 far outperforms it. The DA* 16-50 on the other hand was *really* nice, I liked the weeny little Ltd primes too, wish I'd played with the longer ones though.
Hearing about the medium format camera was extremely encouraging too! Sadly I only came away with a grey card and a groovy Pentax keyfob (I should have wrangled a cap or a mug ), I left the lenses where they were (although my discovery that the ring flash module when set to 100% could be used as a stun weapon did make me ponder on precisely how much kit I could run with and whether it would be the lovely Pentax lass who would wrestle me to the ground when she caught up with me :twisted.
ETA:
Oh yes, I mentioned the DFS issue with the K20 and was surprised that it was the first the rep or the guy in the shop (sorry, forgot his name) had heard of it! He said he'd feed it back through the relevant channels to Pentax Japan.

Hi folks,

I've just joined the forum so thought I'd introduce myself. I bought a K10D just over a year ago, it was my first slr of any flavour. Despite growing up in a Nikon household, the Pentax just bowled me over when I tried it out. I sold my K10D a few weeks ago and bought a K20D and love it! I'm really just a hobbyist, but would love to go pro at some point.

Cheers!

I'm planning to be there, I reckon it'll be the only chance I ever get to try out a DA* lens!