bugmeister

This bunch sometimes have other events that aren't on Rod's page http://www.northernforties.org.uk/

I will be there, probably on Sunday 4th as Bank Hol Monday 5th might be a bit packed. (I'll start adding some of these events to the calendar, I think I have about 30 in the diary at the moment)

I was having a play with one of these last year and was most impressed, it was quite happy with a heavy body/lens combination on top of a sturdy Manfrotto tripod.

Hi Craig, and welcome

wtg Bill, a cracking shot indeed

That's not exactly a lightweight at 3 Kg, but the reviews are good and Slik do have a good reputation. If you're anywhere near Norwich it would be worth nipping into WEX to see what they have, or at least see how the varying weights feel. and it's normally Fuzzy

Greetings Peter, and welcome to the madhouse, I mean the forum

A spectacular picture and a great choice Well done BP

Welcome to the forum, John

Hi Charles and welcome

Well done Paul, that is a spectacular image of the lily. And well done on making a difficult choice Heather, the image quality around here is a bit special.

Greetings Jem, and welcome

Greetings and welcome

Very well done Fuji

Well, I found four and could see another three when I knew where they were, but two I still couldn't see at all

Hi Joe, and welcome from me as well. If you haven't already noticed, some of the people here are a bit wacky, but I'm still sane (or so the voices tell me) Don't worry about developing a 'style'. Some people never do and it doesn't hurt their photography at all

Well chosen Chris and very well done Fuji

Love it!

I have a set badged as Jessops, bought there quite a few years ago for about £70 I think. They do have the electrical connectors and thus maintain both autofocus and aperture control. I originally bought them to go with my 50mm lens to use instead of a dedicated macro and they served me well for years before I bought the sigma 105 and then the MPE65, both of which are still in regular use. As Fuzzy stated, the ONLY purpose of the extension tube (or the substitute piece of cardboard tube) is to allow you to move closer to your subject and thus fill the frame more with the subject, which with some insects can be frustrating as they tend to be scared off, but the results can be quite spectacular. As an aside... I do combine the 12mm or 25mm with the Sigma sometimes to get even closer if I don't have the 65 with me, and perhaps surprisingly they can also be used with a longer zoom lens to allow you to get closer to a bug for example, that is up in a tree. I have used either of these with the 70-200 at 200mm to photograph caterpillars, and I've even seen one being used behind a 100-400 IS lens when the user spotted a damselfly that was closer than the minimum focussing distance of the lens.

Greetings and welcome

A real picture with a story. Well done on PotW Leon, and well chosen Annie

Yes, my system drive is image-backed up about once per month. Photos, videos, documents etc are copied to a minimum of two external drives, one set of which are kept at a friends house. RAW files are written to another external drive as soon as unloaded from the cards, and not cleared from the cards until the external copies are also made. With important pictures (weddings for example), they are also written to DVD as RAW files and also as the finished layered pictures. I don't include the ones which include printer profile information since that would change anyway depending on which printer I am using.

Nooooooooooooooo

Just been to examine mine and I think I've been lucky. Cant see anything inside the lenses although the bright light has left me seeing stars Although I use my kit in all weathers, it never stays in a damp bag and the lenses are off the cameras at home and in a warm dry spot. (L series lenses help as well since they have good sealing when fitted with UV filters)

Well done Barbara, a lovely picture