Hi Pete I very much hope your post will stimulate many of your visitors to complain directly to FC, rather than to simply reply on the forum. I do find it extremely disappointing that Butterfly Conservation, County Wildlife Trusts etc always seem unwilling ( rather than unable ) to directly tackle &...

Hi all Thanks for the images Gary which are very useful and sufficient to convince me that I should get the 250 Raynox. Thanks also for directing me to the Flickr photos, those dramatic close-ups of flies eyes look pretty sharp to me ! Using a Raynox makes more sense to me than using tubes or teleco...

I use a Sigma 105mm macro on my Sony a700 DSLR to photograph butterflies, but I want to get much more magnification than is possible with this set-up. I want to get ultra close-up shots of individual eggs, newly emerged larvae, and anatomical close ups of adults ( eyes, wing details etc ). I don't w...

:D Ok then, here's another question for you guys. Which brand of camera is the most likely to survive an accident ? Sounds at first like a daft question, but my gear gets lugged around in jungles, rained on, splashed occasionally, used in dusty and sandy situations, subjected to the extremes of heat...

Hi all :oops: Sorry if my bit of fun offended anyone, that wasn't the intention. I just think photography is more important than equipment and was trying to make a point. As for the notion that Sony is inferior to Nikon or Canon, it's all a matter of opinion. I've tried them all, and I'm with Sony b...

Hi Felix Why are you concerned about carrying 2 systems ? You don't have to. Your Nikon film lenses and accessories will all work with most Nikon DSLR bodies ( check the compatibility charts on Nikon's website ). I use Minolta Dynax 7 film bodies, which do everything that I want them to, but like ev...

Hi all :D Nice to see that most of you missed the point, which is that it doesn't matter which camera you get, they are all more than up to the job, but all of them suffer from design faults or unreliability to some extent :roll: , and whatever you buy will be superceded by something "better&qu...

:D Hi Guy If you take a look at the Red Admiral and Butterfly Sightings ( 2006, 2007 ) pages on my website you'll find a lot more information about overwintering butterflies in Stansted Forest. There was a Red Admiral flying today at Whiteley Pastures, weak hazy sunshine, slight breeze, about 1300hr...

:shock: Crikey, I've stirred up a hornet's nest here haven't I ? :? Somehow I thought that a "battle" over which brand of camera to buy would attract as much, or more, response than an item about butterflies or conservation ! Let's forget all this talk about Nikon being better than Canon, ...

Hi all Following my recent report of very early Brimstone and Red Admiral, I can now add Peacock and Comma to the list - and it's still January ! This morning, 26th January, at Stansted Forest in West Sussex I saw a Peacock basking on a rock, and 2 Commas - one basking on a tree trunk, the other fou...

Hi all Every photography forum, and every photo magazine gets inundated with questions about which make or model of camera is best for this purpose or that purpose, or for whatever budget the would be purchaser has available. As a photographer with about 40 years experience of cameras and lenses fro...

:D This morning, 12th January, I saw my first butterfly of the year, a Red Admiral basking on a larch trunk in Stansted Forest, West Sussex. When I returned to the same spot 2 hours later it had been joined by another Red Admiral, sharing the same tree trunk. Moments later a female Brimstone flew pa...

Hi there :wink: That robin shot is fantastic ! Anyway, getting to the point of the original question : :) Image stabilisation in the lens offers a very significant advantage over in-body stabilisation, because the viewfinder image is stabilised as well as the image on the sensor. This means that the...

Hi there What are YOU doing to help save the rainforests ? RainforestPortal , learnaboutbutterflies.com and other action groups regularly organise on-line petitions which are used to apply pressure to governments across the world to protect rainforests. You can read more about rainforests and how to...

Hi there What are YOU doing to help save the rainforests ? RainforestPortal , learnaboutbutterflies.com and other action groups regularly organise on-line petitions which are used to apply pressure to governments across the world to protect rainforests. You can read more about rainforests and how to...

Hi there What are YOU doing to help save the rainforests ? RainforestPortal , learnaboutbutterflies.com and other action groups regularly organise on-line petitions which are used to apply pressure to governments across the world to protect rainforests. You can read more about rainforests and how to...

Cheers Pete, I look forward to seeing the Bulgaria report.

Adrian

Hi there Tour leaders and participants of butterfly-watching tours ( or wildlife trips in which butterflies are a major element ) are invited to submit trip reports for publication on http://www.learnaboutbutterflies.com. Reports should follow the same format as those already published - consisting ...

:D http://www.learnaboutbutterflies.com :D celebrates it's first birthday today, and is now one of the most popular on-line entomological resources around, with a large following in the UK and USA, and regular visitors from all over the world. The website, run by Adrian Hoskins, deals with all aspec...

Hi there Butterflies in the family Nymphalidae ( including Satyrinae, Morphinae, Danainae, Charaxinae etc ) have an "ear" on the wings, in the form of a tiny funnel covered in a microscopically thin membrane. There is a scanning electron microscope photo of this on my website at http://www...