TimG

A pleasure Lambis. I've been in that situation where you realise you have forgotten some crucial bit of equipment: that rapidly rising heart beat - the sweating - then the nausea kicks in....... Have a great trip and show us some stunning pics.

Too late bargain hunters! This is now sold.

Having migrated to tiny Inons, I have a Nikonos SB105 strobe for sale. It's in perfect condition (I'm a bit obsessive about looking after my gear) and is complete with diffuser, sync cable, manual and Ultralight foot. No floods, no problems. Photo attached. This really has been a very good strobe and gave me excellent learning experience. I'm looking for about £150 plus postage. I can arrange PayPal. Interested? Email me at Tim@gurney.f9.co.uk

Snap There is no way I'm buying one - no matter how good they are - until 2006. So there

Hey Guys I had an email a short while ago from Pixmantec about the release of RawShooter Premium 2006. This is the final, enhanced version of their semi-beta free program, RawShooter Essentials - which some Wetpixler kindly recommended to me. See http://www.pixmantec.com/ Until 30 October RSP2006 will sell for $59 rather than $99. I took the plunge this evening - as I really like RSE - and downloaded the full version. It looks awesome to me after a couple of hours use: curves, cropping, quick JPGs, batch processing, batch re-naming - all sorts of tricks and tools. RSP2006 is available on 15-day free trial. After 31 October it will be $95. For $55 it looks a steal. Just check it supports your specific RAW format, eg. it supports all the D-series Nikons and some, but not all, Coolpixs. Tim

Hey Lambis Woody at Nexus says: Nexus has their own grease and it is not petroleum based. You can use generic silicone grease in an emergency but not as a regular habit. So get some, relax and get snapping........ and have fun, Best wishes Tim

Hey Lambis I've just emailed Nexus asking them if any o-ring lube will do or if Nexus use a specialist o-ring lube. Worse comes to the worst, I suggest not lubing them. But I'll email you as soon as Nexus reply.

Hey Andy Sorry you have had such a "quiet" response - pretty unusual for this forum where people are always very helpful. I've just gone through a similar process as you with Photoshop CS. I found my local public library full of Photoshop books which I could then pick through to find the right one for me. I also signed up for a night school class at my local community college - which, for £135, is proving to be excellent. The questions you ask seem, to me at least, pretty detailed and not something easy to answer in a few lines: hence maybe the lack of a reply.

Hey James I use Photoshop Album for my indexing and archiving. I have about 10,500 images on as thumbnails with all the RAWs "off line" on an external HD and also backed on to DVDs and CDs. Burning multiple, sequential CDs or DVDs is not a problem. A full DVD - about 425 images for me- takes about 20 minutes. Tim

And congrats too for getting a pic on the BBC website today as an award winner!! Well done Alex.

Hey Andrea Martin Edge's book "The Underwater Photographer" is pretty good - although non-digital: not that it makes much difference. And I found Jack and Sue Drafahl's book, "Digital Imaging for the UW Photgrapher" helpful too. Best wishes Tim

I've just bought a Skype handset to use with my Sony VAIO laptop. A couple of SkypeOut calls that have been made to my landline from overseas have been excellent. It seems a no-brainer.

Hey Chris I reckon most pictures benefit from an adjustment of the histogram - usually moving the black and white arrow pointers to compress or extend the range; then a tweak of the mid-grey point. Tim

Sorry I can't help on Oylmpus DSLRs, but if you can't find anything it may well be worth having a look on the Classified forum for what DSLRs people are selling with housings and lenses. There is quite a turn over and you may be able to pickup an excellent DSLR system - NIkon or Canon - for an amazing price.

Yep, a plug adaptor just changes the shape of the plug - and not the voltage of the appliance (you have a voltage converter or "transformer" for that). If you are using 110v appliances in 220v-Bali you will need to use your 110v>220v convertor - and you will need to make sure your appliances have the right plug shape to fit in to your convertor; and that your convertor has the right plug shape (using an adaptor if necessary) to go in to Balli's 2-pin round-style mains sockets. If your appliances don't need the 110v>220v convertor, you will just need to make sure you have the right plug adaptor to convert the shape of the plug on your appliances to the Bali-style. If you have several appliances - and it sounds as though you might, you may want to consider taking a small multi-socket power extension strip: perhaps a strip with 3-4 sockets on it on a yard-long cable. You can then put your adaptor on the end of this and you will be able to plug 3-4 appliances through one adaptor or one adaptor/transformer. I usually take one and find it very useful when charging several devices with only one mains socket - or only one adaptor I hope this makes sense!

Hey Scott There is a recent thread on this. I bought the Epson P-2000 recently which works very well: 30GB and a very good screen. And I'm selling a Nixvue Vista! (see Classifieds). They are also very good. Most of the digital storage devices are multi-voltage so you don't need a converter (heavy things they are too) Rechargable batteries: Radio Shack. I recommend Nickel Metal Hydride which avoids the NiCad memory issue. Dessicants: hardware store. Microwaves dry them out nicely. One thing to add to your list: plug/mains adaptors. Make sure you have the right plug adaptor for where you are going. Charger for your AA batteries? Have a wicked trip!

Hey Guys I have a Nixvue Vista digital storage player for sale. Check out the picture on http://www.steves-digicams.com/2002_review...xvue_vista.html The unit holds 20GBs and will store and display RAW as well as JPGs via CF or microdrives. It will handle other media formats with obtainable adaptors. I have upgraded the firmware to the latest version. The player comes with a very snappy travel case, remote control, manual and power pack. It can be connected to a TV set to show images or present a slideshow assisted by the remote It is in perfect condition and has given me a couple of years of very good service. I'm looking for £95 with buyer paying postage costs. I can probably sort out a PayPal arrangement. They are terrific items of equipment.

Oh man, what a sickener - my sympathies. I almost gave birth to a cow on the first dive day of my recent round the world dive tour. As I put my system in the dunk tank prior to the first dive, that jolly little leak detector LED started flashing its socks off. Thankfully I got the camera out in time. Like you I could not work out what on earth I had done wrong - I had been so careful on set-up. And then realised I had not removed the rubber viewfinder eyepiece from my D100 - thus preventing a complete seal on the housing. It was impossible to detect the gap with an visual inspection. Phew, what a lesson learned.

I doubt there are any DSLRs where you can use the LCD to compose the pic. SLRs use a mirror to move the image from the lens to the viewfinder. Presumably it would be feasible to move the image to an LCD somewhere en route. But then you would be losing much of the point of an SLR: what the lens sees, you see directly and in "real time" through the viewfinder.

Yep, sign me up too: 60mm macro

Yep, I have the same experience. Payouts can take quite a time - as can anyone actually buying the images that you provide. But the agency that takes my stuff keeps telling me that it takes time to establish a stream of sales; and that it is important to keep providing images and build up a large, high-quality collection.

I bought a Sony VAIO S2 series at Christmas and am delighted with it. 80GB hard disk, 1 GB RAM, DVD burner, light weight, 2-3 hour battery life, WLAN built-in. Its my second VAIO - the last one I had for 4 years and it never so much as hiccupped. I can recommend them. I think there is an S3 or maybe even S4 series now: same body, enhanced guts.

Phew. I banged off half a dozen RAW pics on my 2GB card and was able to both read them off the CF card through the P2000; and then to download them. Quick little sucker too. And the screen is superb.

Man I hope that is wrong! I bought a P-2000 a few days ago to use with my 2GB Lexar CF cards. I havn't tried it yet and never thought for a moment that there might be a problem. I'll go and try it..........

Many thanks guys. I must admit I was hoping that the purchase of a monopod and a switch to 400 ISO would do the trick - but sadly not: even with a nice Manfrotto. I guess advancing years are enhancing camera shake. Actually its probably too many alcohol soaked years on the diplomatic circuit that are doing me in I checked out the 24-120 yesterday at a dealer - and was not too impressed. The 80-200 does seem the way to go but, believe it or not, I cannot find a dealer in the UK who actually has one - even the Nikon main dealers. They are all blaming Nikon distribution. I'm a bit reluctant to spend so much via the mail order route without actually trying it. I guess waiting will let me save up. Tha ks for the advice. Much appreciated.