Lightroom does much more than just convert RAW and various peeps on here think that Silkypix's RAW conversion is superior. Thus Silkypix for RAW conversion, Lightroom for the other stuff.

eh:

Welcome and have fun with your K20D. You won't regret it

And a Merry Christmas to you too.

Kris.

Hi Martin,

I am looking forward to having a go at this weeks comp on the weekend. I'll have to raid my girlfriend's house for something interesting!

I love this shot, a classic still life with lots of texture. I hope you don't mind but I popped it into PS and tweaked the curves a little and think it might be improved a tiny tad by a convex curves adjustment, just lightening the highlights a little to give a bit more contrast and incidentally showing the grain in the timber a tiny bit better. Just a minor adjustment and I dare say others would feel differently!

I hope my attempt is half as good.

Best wishes, Kris.

I rather like lightroom for many things, especially that it's edits are "non-destructive", i.e. your original file remains unaltered, the various processes being recorded in lightroom or written to an XML sidebar file. The metadata tagging, search facilities, labelling files as "rejected" or "picks" etc are great. I have, however, found it surprisingly weak on moving files around and so on. For example, I wanted to move my entire photography directory onto an external hard disk and it wasn't easy to do within lightroom. I'd like to copy stuff onto DVDs but it doesn't really handle cataloguing that sort of stuff either.

One thing I am curious about, however, is how using its export function to create a lower-res jpg compares to manually changing the mode from 16 to 8bit and then reducing using resize in CS3. Oh dear, I feel some experimentation coming on. Lightroom will automatically do things like add a copyright watermark, rename etc in the export process.

Picasa annoyed me from the outset my insisting on cataloguing every image file on my hard disk before I could find a way to stop it.

To go back to the OP, I would be curious if someone has found a way of using Silkypix with Lightroom. After all the recommendations I have heard for silkypix I'd be interested in looking at this further.

Best wishes, Kris.

As I am finding, 5x4 is an expensive route to go. The camera is (as ever!) just the start. Big heavy tripod needed, dark slides, hand held spotmeter, car to carry the kit around, assistant to fend off nosy locals... Having said that, it is lovely but perhaps not a good start for trying out film for the first time. Medium format would probably be a good compromise and plenty of TLRs about. The Mamiya C330 even has interchangeable lenses although once again you are pushing the price up (see here for a review).

Cheers, Kris.

Back home I have a sales brochure for the Pentax 110 system which shows a lady at various stages of the day with the thing attached to her wrist. It is quite a hoot. I'll scan it when I get home in January and post it for the amusement value.

BTW, the white camera is almost as ugly as the gold LX.

"Pentax FA 31mm f/1.8 AL, $835, (effective 46mm), a great lens from the film era, but ridiculous overkill for a small sensor camera with a tremendous waste of glass..."

I think a few on here might disagree with that statement!

Otherwise, some interesting stuff. Thanks for the link.

Kris.

If you want to go back to basics (manual focus, manual exposure) go for an MX. Plenty of those on ebay but tend to go for a little more than the MZ series. The K1000 has "iconic" status but IMHO is nowhere near as nice as the MX. The MX was a poor man's LX. As to the more all singing, all dancing autofocus models, you have had better advice from the others (I jumped from MX/LX/ME Super to the K10D and missed out all the P, Z and MZ series cameras). My Super A is an extremely battered example I was given which I use for site work and I have never really used it seriously, although it is in the same nice solid mould as the M-series cameras.

As to slide film, it is very unforgiving exposure wise. Whereas on BW you can get away with a little error, it really shows on slides. Having said that, the colours in a well exposed Fuji Velvia 50 slide will blow you away (and the 120 roll film version is stunning). As hefty said, less easy to pass the prints around, but you do have the option of projecting them. And of course, 50 ASA film often needs a tripod. No dialling up the ASA or turning on the shake reduction! You'll also be surprised how much manual everything and 20p or 30p a shot will slow down your snapping but also make you think a great deal more about every shot.

Have fun! Kris.

I really like this shot. The room around it makes it. I might play around with a tiny bit of cropping (maybe at the bottom?) as it feels in an uncomfortable position in the frame. Although the rule of thirds is only a guideline to be broken, in this case the position of the leaf feels a little awkward, not quite centre (which wouldn't work) not quite on a third. I, too, love the frost. A really nice photo.

Best wishes, Kris.