[Kiwizinho]

i did the long and hard comparison between the TM Tamron and my beercan, the FA100/2.8
LBA can also mean change for the sake of it
I have the marvellous Tamron SP90/2.5 MF so the bar was high.
Good price too, lot of nice stuff on TM atm.

speaking of which, is one of us the Michael from Dunedin trying to snaffle the HD55-300 ?

I don't have any true macro lenses at present although the FA-50 1.4 focuses reasonably close, and the Sigma 17-70 focuses VERY close, but it's not a true macro.

I've considered a 50mm macro, but already have a good 50mm prime, and given my budget, I'm trying to make sure my lenses can fulfil multiple uses.

90mm seems reasonable as it's not far beyond the supposedly 'magic' 85mm for portraits.
I've heard some people reckon that macro lenses can be too sharp for portraits, but there seem to be plenty of people in the reviews here who reckon the Tamron 90 is a good portrait lens.
I think 100mm might be starting to get a bit long for portrait situations.
Realistically, I'm probably not going to ever earn any money from doing macro photography, but there's a slight possibility I might be able to with portraits, so in terms of bang-for-buck, I'm thinking 90mm represents pretty good value that might have a slight possibility of being able to pay for itself. Even if it doesn't, it covers two areas of photography I enjoy.
My Sigma 17-70 2.8 - 4.8 paid for itself within a couple of weeks of buying it, more as a result of good luck rather than good planning.

[NZ_Ross]

90mm seems reasonable as it's not far beyond the supposedly 'magic' 85mm for portraits.

I have a Voigtlander APO 90mm and a Leica R 90mm f2.8 I Leitax'ed to fit on Pentax - 90mm is a very nice focal length for Portraits.

In fact the Leica R APO 90mm f2 is reputed to be the best portrait lens in the world. They sell for about USD $3,5000 - that is not the one I have

So, I think you will be very safe if you are planning to use a 90mm for portraits. No doubt there are huge scholarly arguments of the advantage of a 85mm over a 90mm, I will just say - 90mm is fine for portraits.

[awa355]

The K3 went for $790. I didn't follow the auction, but that would have been out of my reach at this time.

[richandfleur]

IF Pentax push out mechanical stabilisation to the K-3 then I'll seriously consider going that way

I've got a Tamron 90mm and really rate it for portraits. It does a decent macro too, but I get increasingly annoyed with macro these days, in terms of having to deal with that minuscule depth of field in focus region.
I think I read somewhere about Pentax auto stacking focus at different depths, or was that trying the same scene with different apertures automatically. There was something in the KP like that if I recall?
Focus stacking would need to become your friend I expect, but I've never had the patience for that

[Kiwizinho]

IF Pentax push out mechanical stabilisation to the K-3 then I'll seriously consider going that way

I've got a Tamron 90mm and really rate it for portraits. It does a decent macro too, but I get increasingly annoyed with macro these days, in terms of having to deal with that minuscule depth of field in focus region.
I think I read somewhere about Pentax auto stacking focus at different depths, or was that trying the same scene with different apertures automatically. There was something in the KP like that if I recall?
Focus stacking would need to become your friend I expect, but I've never had the patience for that

Pentax has done in-camera HDR (albeit JPG only) and multiple exposure for a while (RAW), even on entry level models, so it would be pretty cool if they could come up with in-camera focus stacking. I'm not sure how well it would work, but if they could pull it off, I'd imagine a few people would find it handy.

Hmm... just learnt something new about LR and Photoshop. Googled Lightroom focus stacking, and turned out LR + PS can do focus stacking very easily. It's about as simple as doing panoramas through stitching. Must give it a go.
How to Use Lightroom + Photoshop Auto-Blend Focus Stacking

[MarkJerling]

The sky was looking quite pretty last night from the cake tin.

[NZ_Ross]

The sky was looking quite pretty last night from the cake tin.

Very atmospheric

[richandfleur]

Here it is, the KP features:

"This isn't all that's new in the KP, though. The camera also debuts two new advanced bracketing modes: motion and depth. These modes, which have been added to the drive mode menu, allow you to get the camera to automatically cycle through a range of shutter speeds or apertures, respectively. So, if you don't know how strong of a bokeh is best, you could enable depth bracketing (while in Av mode) and get the camera to shoot a series of photos at different aperture settings. This kind of bracketing is something our users have suggested in the past, and we're happy that it has finally been implemented!"



So, not focus or composition adjustment auto bracketing.

[MarkJerling]

Very atmospheric

Black Cap supporters were not enjoying the atmosphere much!

[Kiwigeezer]

There are a couple of 90mm macros on Trademe at the moment, and I almost bought one, but I thought I'd think about it overnight and this morning I discovered my laptop is dead.
It gave a few oddly coloured flickers when I woke it, and could just make out a message saying Windows was shutting down because something had gone wrong, and that was it.
Nothing after multiple attempts to start it.
Hard drive is fine (and backed up), I think RAM is OK, but I suspect the graphics chip, and being a laptop that means a replacement.

Unfortunately what with Windows anti-piracy, I probably can't just pop the hard drive in another machine and boot up, although I've been looking out on Trademe for any similar models. They're reasonably cheap, but none exactly same specs as mine.

I've still got my desktop to fall back on, but it's going to be a pain copying files that I need, and the desktop isn't set up for dual monitors (well it is, but the second monitor is the TV, and not convenient for work.)

Also, although my desktop has more total disk space than my laptop, it distributed across several drives, so I can't fit all my photos from my laptop on it too easily.

I went down this road about a year ago with my eldest son's Acer.
Easy to replace the HDD, look for the Windows sticker with the authenticity code on it on the laptop -(may be hidden under the battery). If you've got that you're set. I downloaded the OS as a disk image (I can find the http:\ somewhere), burned a DVD, loaded it onto laptop, and did verification with MS by phone. I can dig around for more details if you want/need. Of course, it's also a convenient excuse for an upgrade too...

---------- Post added 02-26-17 at 10:52 PM ----------

I went down this road about a year ago with my eldest son's Acer.
Easy to replace the HDD, look for the Windows sticker with the authenticity code on it on the laptop -(may be hidden under the battery). If you've got that you're set. I downloaded the OS as a disk image (I can find the http:\ somewhere), burned a DVD, loaded it onto laptop, and did verification with MS by phone. I can dig around for more details if you want/need. Of course, it's also a convenient excuse for an upgrade too...

Of course SSDs are cheap now, but can be a bit more challenging.

[NZ_Ross]

Black Cap supporters were not enjoying the atmosphere much!

That is not uncommon

[richandfleur]

Black Cap supporters were not enjoying the atmosphere much!

Ha ha I was thinking the same thing looking at that moody image

[Kiwi645hauler]

At least with Canon you know a 300D is an early dslr, and the 1300D is the latest of the entry level cameras. Nikon seem to be as bad as Pentax.

Canon were pretty bad early on.. they had the D30 and D60, which were replaced by the 10D and with their natural progression we have had the 30D and 60D as well, also with Canon, they launced the 300D, 400D, went backwards to the 1000D line while the x00D line increased to the 800D (just announced) and have also released a 100D which was smaller than the rest of the cameras..

[Arpe]

The sky was looking quite pretty last night from the cake tin.

Nice, shame about the game. Luckily I was filling in playing for a tennis team, then out to dinner, so didn't get to watch much of it.

[MarkJerling]

Nice, shame about the game. Luckily I was filling in playing for a tennis team, then out to dinner, so didn't get to watch much of it.

Pity? It was a lovely game - If you're a Proteas supporter!
Dual citizenship has it's uses.