At an unrepeatable event like this the HUGE advantage digital has over film is the histogram feature to check exposure. Shoot to the right and you'll get some good shots.

Don't hold your breath...

This might be grandmother teaching one to suck eggs. If so, ignore me. My students usually do!

One last thing to watch out for. If it is nice and sunny, the dynamic range between sunny and dark will be quite great, and using auto exposure might result in either burnt out highlights or very under-exposed images. I would advise that you shoot in RAW (or RAW+) format and check the histogram as often as you can.

Best wishes and good luck on the happy day, Kris.

I had a very enjoyable couple of hours trying out lenses and the ring flash at SRS. The pre-production models of the 60-250 were impressive but not a very discreet lens! The DA* 55 1.4 is nice too, although the lens hood looks like the top half of a thermos cup, albeit felt lined. The DA* 200mm and 300mm lenses are impressive too. The ring flash worked well in auto mode (both camera and flash) and has five settings for balancing left v. right sides of the ring. The DA Limiteds are stunningly tiny. The 70mm Ltd was dwarfed on my K10D with the battery grip.

The Pentax guys were, however, unwilling to commit themselves as to when the new teleconverter will be available... Sorry all, but I did ask.

Freebies consisted of a Pentax baseball cap, a nice pen set and a little torch.

Thanks all at SRS and the Pentax reps, it was great to play with all those toys. I just need to win the lottery now. Opps, I don't play the lottery...

Cheers, Kris.

Could I be "Master of the Wooden Spoon" in recognition of stirring the pot now and again?

The lens arrived this morning, and extremely well packed. It appears in very good condition, a little dust inside but that is neither here nor there. Luckily, I found I had a spare genuine Pentax skylight filter of the right size too. It is a fairly chunky piece of glass, and isn't dwarfed by the K10D unlike most of my M-series lenses. I shall take it out and play this afternoon. Just need to find an appropriate lens hood.

Thanks Pete, sorry Karl.

Best wishes, Kris.

Nice job Martin (and a great shot Hyram)

One suggestion... I wonder if it looks fractionally better as a square crop loosing a little off the top? Or have I been using my old TLR too much lately?

Best wishes, Kris.

Not a snowballs chance in hell that I am taking my DA* 50-135mm in there! I might risk the 40 quid Tammy though...

This is an old chestnut and you won't find any degree of agreement between us (do a search for past threads). It depends partly on the sort of person you are (ultra careful, clumsy, etc.), what sort of environment you work in (filthy archaeological sites etc.) and whether you worry about the filter breaking as has been known to happen.

Personally, I am very clumsy, often work in filthy places and have never seen a good quality filter smash in circumstances that wouldn't equally damage the lens (and have a sore knee to prove it ) so I have filters on almost all my lenses. The "use your lens hood" idea is a non-starter for me as I can barely squeeze my five digital lenses, the K10D, grip and flash in the bag as it is, and I often want to take a film body along too.

You pays your money and takes your choice with this one. Now I am going to hide while the "don't use filters" brigade have their say

Best wishes, Kris.

Unusually for me I say colour too.

Perhaps a little brighter though? (Although I am looking at it on an uncalibrated laptop screen).

Cheers, Kris.