Well that told me, didn't it?

Looks promising. Meanwhile, while Alpha mount users are crying out for a long tele-prime, Sony has announced three more cameras, meaning they're the only major camera manufacturer that has more camera bodies than lenses.

It's possible Misha but I still think it's a male. Do you have any more pics Dave?

It's a dark bush cricket male.

I went down to Walton Hill last week with Xmilehigh. We found the windmill but the hedgerows didn't look very promising, being mainly wawthorn rather than blackthorn. As a result we didn't stop long. We also checked out Collard Hill, the well known large blue site, because the NT warden who was ther...

A nice fresh one at the local wildlife park snapped last Friday:

Thanks Gary. You just have to be lucky with emperors as even if they perch they're normally incredibly alert and will fly off when you try to get close enough for photos. But when they capture prey they settle down to eat it and are then sufficiently preoccupied to approach them. I was still about s...

Produced for the camera? Well not always. The last lens I bought for an arm and a leg is a work of art, is in pristine condition, takes wonderfully sharp pictures and is very fast. It has the Minolta copyright stamped 1989, long before digital. That's a nice portrait, Nick. The diffuse flash is very...

Viewing the competition entries is a breeze. Great job Pete!

The obvious question is how did you threaten it?

Both meadow browns look mature to me, and there's wing damage to the top buterfly's wings. I suspect the apparent crinkling is due to the angle of light on the wings. Incidently, the top one is the female. I've seen this before where the female MB continues to fly around from flower to flower, casua...

Nick, I recently swapped out a Sigma EX 105mm macro for a Minolta 100mm original and encountered slightly different findings. Results from the Sigma were sharp, very sharp, but ultimately rather flat and analytical. Results from the Minolta are very different, not really very much sharper but with r...

Thanks. Should have said it was the Wildfowl Trust, not Wildlife.

Got a few from the Wildlife Trust at Slimbridge last year but it depends on the resolution required. I'll fish them out.
Edit: PM sent.

Overnight on the night the clocks go back sounds good to me, Pete.

If you go again, try the grassy banks above and below the main path just before you get to the stone bridge.
Mike.

Rightly or wrongly, I mostly wear a white shirt when snapping butterflies. Whites will sometimes check me out but butterflies don't seem to be very bothered by it and it acts as a useful diffuse reflector giving a convenient fill-in for backlit shots.

1024 pixels on the longer side looks good to me, however, this thread is primarily aimed at DSLR users and therefore might not have been viewed by everyone. To get a consensus I think it would be a good idea to start a new topic asking people their opinions, maybe a vote.

Well done Ian. To be honest I didn't vote for it. Although it's a very nice shot, because of the long narrow format I felt the limitations of the 800 pixel limit strapped it of its obvious quality. My votes were for Padfield's Meleager's blue, a great use of the increased apparent DOF from a compact...

Nice one! I too have a Tamron 90mm and find it it difficult to fault! (I always use a 1.4 TC too). I have just picked-up a 2nd hand 200mm Nikkor f4 macro - and that is (marginally) sharper. Here's a dragonfly (not sure which) I took this weekend and a damselfly.... N Nice pics Nick. I'm surprised y...