Originally posted by Ron Boggs If you can find one, I highly recommend the Pentax 5.5X APO loupe.
+1 on the Pentax 5.5x SMC loupe. I bought mine used for a good price because there was a fracture line on the clear plastic, but it's still 100% functional.
It is a great device. I recently have been using mine not for looking at slides but for mostly looking up the teeny-tiny print in a couple of cheap non-english dictionaries when I'm helping my son do his language homework. The text is about 3-4 point and on cheap paper so this loupe is invaluable. I also have a Zeiss 3x loupe for medium format but I haven't used it since I got my 5.5x.
Originally posted by Ron Boggs Chris's comment about not needing to bracket is very accurate--as is his exposure setting! Slide film requires knowledge of exposure, but isn't some impossible medium either. I sometimes do a 2 shot bracket.
Velvia for landscapes and nature, combined with good quality glass... yum. That "thud" you hear is your jaw hitting the floor as you stare at the images in awe. Provia is great too.
I sometimes bracket 2-3 shots with slides but I'm paranoid. I've actually found the metering in my Pentax film cameras to be quite accurate. So in my last trip to the Rocky Mountains I didn't bracket much at all.
But I digress. Here's why I'm posting. I've found there is another reason to take another shot of the same scene at the same meter reading...
cheap, high quality dupes!
By this I mean if you get a slide you really like you always run the risk of losing or damaging it (you slide shooters know what I mean!). So if you take a second or even third image right away you essentially have a duplicate you can store safely away, and it will be much cheaper and of better quality than having a slide dupe made.