Recent content by petersboulton

Hi there! OP here. Many thanks to everyone who has taken the trouble to respond to my post. I understand the position much better now, thank you. I checked the photo I had added to my Amazon listing and the serial number of the lens was not shown. So I suppose Sam*yang challenge every...

A couple of years ago I bought a lens from E-Infinity, a Hong Kong company. I knew it would be a 'grey' import. E-Infinity claimed to pay all import duties etc. so the price I paid was the price I paid. I believe they ship single bulk shipments to the UK, where a distribution company splits...

That's an interesting point - I hadn't thought of the variation in DOF based on sensor size. Guess the compact has the advantage of being more likely to be sharp and the DSLR will have the nicer blurry background (bouquet?). Probably the Panny, but I'm more bothered by the relative...

Thanks for the reply. I like to think I understand the basics of exposure etc. having 'grown up' in the film days with a 35mm SLR. However, in an attempt to eliminate the 'clueless user' option I did buy a book off Amazon specifically on the a200! Doing a temporary swap with the Mrs. is a...

I think the Panasonic pictures are generally sharper and more 'vibrant'. Perhaps the first step for me is to stop using the 18-70mm and see whether I still think the same. (Unfortunately I like wide-angle so it's hard to give up!). I agree that the a200 is a fab camera - the ergonomics...

I have a Sony Alpha a200 with assorted lenses and recently my wife bought a Panasonic LX5 (high-end) compact. Guess what? I'm thinking that her photos have better image quality than mine! I've uploaded the original images as taken off the cameras of some comparable pictures - please see...

You're right. There are many more skilled practitioners than me and I'm not saying the stock lens is awful - just that it didn't get me the image quality improvement versus a £100 compact that I was hoping for (given my limitations as a photographer)! I can definitely say that the quality of...

I bought one in December. I am a returning SLR user as my previous SLR (for those with long memories) was a Canon AE1 film camera. For the money, the Sony is brilliant. Most reviews seem to conclude it's the best entry level camera. However, I was very disappointed with the stock lens that...