The author of the Shutterbug article, Jack Neubart, noted that the Manfrotto Pro Backpack 30 was not very comfortable when fully loaded. He stated that the shoulder straps were too narrow and did not have enough padding and that the waist belt needed to be padded. He also lamented the lack of a water bottle pocket.

Bill, I only use Epson paper. Office Max and Staples sometimes run 50% off sales, but don't seem to carry anything larger than 8.5x11" and mostly glossy. Epson's website carries many sizes and finishes, but you might also look on Amazon to save some money on larger sizes.

Sorry, no, but the copy is in my hands. So old school! :-D

I quickly became overwhelmed by the available choices in photo backpacks, so I made a list of my minimum requirements and put all the specs (size, weight, access, etc.) and features in a spreadsheet, so I didn't miss anything. It quickly helped me narrow the field. I didn't see a rain jacket, water bottle(s) or emergency first aid gear on your list, so I assume you will carry them separately.

Since my needs are slightly different than yours, I won't recommend anything specific, but I will note that the latest issue of Shutterbug does raise some comfort issues on the Manfrotto you had picked out.

Have you tried the Pentax forum?

http://www.pentaxforums.com/lensreviews/

Paul, I don't think that LR has this direct functionality. However, if you do not use all the color labels, you could assign one to all those you export. Then you could filter on that color, solving your problem. This would only work going forward, or require lots of effort to label those you previously exported.

Maybe even less than 10%. #:thumbup:

Don't overlook the Pentax line. Most of the bodies are Weather Resistant (sealed) and they have a good line of WR lenses to complement them. One that comes to mind is the 18-135mm WR. Have a great trip.

You've had lots of useful suggestions, but I might add my own. Get a neutral density card, or like I have, lens cleaning cloth. Shoot a shot with the card or cloth held next to the subject's face. Then in PP, this card will permit WB adjustment for the lighting at the subject's face. For instance in LR, you can use the WB selector (eyedropper). Just click the selector on the card or cloth and LR will get you something that is at least acceptable. As others noted, mixed lighting is the pits.

Hi Craig and welcome.

One pitfall that I fell into when transitioning to digital is that I started to think less about composition, lighting, etc. due to the fact that I was no longer using up (relatively) expensive frames of film. The temptation was there to shoot more and delete later. I also got away from manual, aperture-, or shutter-priority shooting. I have since seen the errors of my ways.

If you apply the same degree of thought to your digital image captures that you did for film, I think you will be happy.

Aaron, the backup that LR prompts you to do is just a backup of your catalog, not your images. It is not a destructive or incremental backup. Each time it backs up your whole catalog, and optionally optimizes the catalog to improve performance. Remember that the catalog saves any adjustments to your images, previews, etc., but not the images themselves.

So, you may go into the backup directory and periodically purge old catalog backups. I have LR set to backup the catalog daily (not that I use it every day) and once a month go into the backup directory and clean out all but a few.

Most importantly, if you do not have a backup strategy in place for your images, by all means do so ASAP. LR is NOT doing this for you.

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

Yes, we seem to have confused the issue. Physically the maximum aperture (lowest numerical value) is the relationship between the focal length and the size of the outermost optical element. Thus, a 50mm focal length lens with a 25mm diameter front element would be f/2.

The significance is that the bigger the front element, the more light can be gathered. As an example, an f/4 lens can gather twice the light of an f/5.6, but only half the light of an f2.8 lens. So one would tend to want to be able to capture as much light from the subject as possible, BUT the downside is size, weight, complexity and cost of the faster lenses.

If you intend to do lots of landscapes, you will probably want to be using a smaller than maximum aperture. When you combine this with wanting to use low ISO, a tripod with a medium cost, quality, and reasonable max. f-stop lens might be a better combination that a faster lens hand held.

Wikipedia has a great explanation of f-stops in an article under "F-number".

Loved the creativity that home printing allowed, especially in direct positive Cibachrome. I lost a little when family pressure steered me to color negatives. More difficult for me to visualize.

I do not own the cameras in question, but rather the older K10D with plans to purchase a K3 this summer. I am very pleased with my current images, finding them every bit as good as those of my Canikon owning friends.

I feel that in addition to advertising, lack of penetration in big box stores is also a hindrance in the US, although I believe that Walmart now carries the K30 and Kr. Finally, fear of the unknown may be a factor.

One poster mentioned financial stability as a drawback. I can only state that Pentax is now a brand owned by Ricoh, which is on a good financial footing. Since the purchase, at least 3 cameras and several lenses have been introduced, indicating the Ricoh does have on-going interest in maintain Pentax.

Finally, every Pentax lens, either original m42 screw mount (with an inexpensive adapter), or K mount can still be used on Pentax DSLRs. This opens up the world of used lenses. And image stabilization can be used on every one of them since it is camera based. You only pay for it once.