This is the smaller of the two species of bird on the beach. Much quicker and more skittish than the first type, and more often in groups.

Best wishes, K.

PS. Yes, I know it isn't all that sharp!

I upped the vibrance a little, tweaked the curve a little, cropped a little to get the chappie on the thirds, and sharpened. All fairly minor tweaks.

Although this was on a beach in Florida, it was minus 1C at the time. Brrrrrrr...

The £40 was because Jessops were selling off all their Pentax gear. They sold out of the lens I wanted but offered me the Tamron at the same price so I took it. One day I'll splash the cash for a DA* 300 but for now the Tammy does me fine, thank you.

K.

The trio of 28mm, 50mm and 135mm lenses was the entirety of my lens collection for about the first 20 years of my photographic experience!

K.

Welcome, and enjoy those old lenses on your new camera. Run a film through the old SP500 every so often though, or the old gal will sieze up.

K.

USSB I fear. So much for the Cold War.

K.

I prefer without. I find the mast distracting especially as it isn't immediately obvious what it is.

K.

There were two varieties of bird scooting along the shore. Quite small ones which were very quick (bit bigger than a robin, a little smaller than a blackbird) and these ones which were bigger (bigger than a blackbird but leggier and thinner than a pigeon) and seemed less anxious to run away when I pointed my lens in their direction!

Best wishes, Kris.

Given the steep rise in lens prices over the last six months, twice the 2006 price probably isn't unreasonable.

Let us all know what you think of it when you have had a chance to use it.

K.

PS.

Set the white balance manually using a piece of white paper (or an 18% gray card if you own one of those).

K.

I wonder why on earth taking the lens off "A" would mess-up the white balance: Sounds like an "undocumented feature" to me

K.