Suggestions:

There is quite a trendy film revival going on at the moment so –

Offer it to a charity shop rather than bin it. Lots of people collect old cameras just for fun so even some faulty ones may be of interest.

Also try an internet search for 2nd hand sellers or look in Amateur Photographer magazine (out every Tuesday) as companies who buy and sell 2nd hand kit are listed in the back – Mifsuds is one. They have a web site and buy as well as sell. they are a well known company.

Offer it to your local camera clubs or ask them for disposal advice.

The lens if marked ‘EF’ will work on any modern Canon camera. There are also adaptors available for lenses to be used on other makes. See Amazon or a traditional camera shop (not Jessops!) for advice.

Suggestions:

There is quite a trendy film revival going on at the moment so –

Offer it to a charity shop rather than bin it. Lots of people collect old cameras just for fun so even some faulty ones may be of interest.

Also try an internet search for 2nd hand sellers or look in Amateur Photographer magazine (out every Tuesday) as companies who buy and sell 2nd hand kit are listed in the back – Mifsuds is one. They have a web site and buy as well as sell. they are a well known company.

Offer it to your local camera clubs or ask them for disposal advice.

The lens if marked ‘EF’ will work on any modern Canon camera. There are also adaptors available for lenses to be used on other makes. See Amazon or a traditional camera shop (not Jessops!) for advice.

I think they should be punished obviously, but to take the benefits will punish people around the criminals more than making things tricky for criminals themselves. Looks like several of them have kids – yeh, lets evict the kids with the parents and punish them for the poor behaviour of thier parents – that will make them grow up and care about socieity. Or put them in care while the parents are on the street – always a good outcome there.

People with no money will either have to get a job (almost no chance with a nice new criminal record) in low employment areas or have to steal to live (punishing any random person who is mugged or burgled) or scrounge off their families/friends, dragging them down too.

I think if you advertise to the right market, you might get interest.
Try selling it as a ‘spiritual retreat’. There are books about that list retreats for those keen to get away from everything. Away from others and communing with natures sounds good. I think maybe the people on here, who tend often to be very social, are perhaps not who you should aim your main advertising at.

Think these groups? – ecology, new age, religion, alternative therapy, city people trying to escape into fantasy… bound to be advertising sites / magazines / web sites for all these people.

Thought I would bump this in case anyone else has links.

Things to consider:

How long will you be living there?
Will you be leaving the shed behind when you move?

These may effect what you want to pay and also how robust the shed needs to be.

Oh and cheap overlap tends to warp and leave gaps in the sides of the shed. Not good for security or draftproofing.

I love the colour of the shed in the photos.

Not read all replies, so sorry if duplicating something.

Farmers use rifles. I know of a farmer who has African game stuffed and hung in his house that he went on safaris and shot himself. I have not seen the room but have been told by his close friend there are loads of animals preserved there. Farmers who are into hunting are good shots. Must admit I was shocked this game hunting still goes on, but have actually seen references to it in newspapers in the last few months.

To shoot a fox you watch it moving about until it pauses, then you shoot.
Foxes even if moving away from you (watch one if you get a chance) habitually pause to look back. Thats your moment. Explained to me by someone who used to double his salary a few decades back, by hunting birds / deer and selling them on to butchers etc.

Also most farmers are decent people, who would not choose to shoot someone’s pet unless the circumstances were pretty desperate. However they are within their rights legally to do so.

I have as said in my prev posts, I have known substance abusers/drinkers and I felt compassion for them. But compassion is what they often feed on – it took me a while to fully understand that. I also saw utter selfishness and how content they were to put their “much loved” families through misery, fear and anxiety, as well as being more than willing to knowingly encourage other people into the same behaviour.

I see addiction as complex and often with a sad background. I don’t see it as acceptable to destoy others because of it.
Attention. Control. Ego. You can understand and sympathise with the driving need, but it does not make it OK.

I have not thought of this thread as specific to Amy Winehouse, but as something that raised a general discussion on addiction. But I will end with a quote from a newspaper yesterday, said by her father and I doubt he was being harsh, just stating a fact.

“What she really likes,’ said Mitch, ‘is for people to worry about her.”

These all look like they can keep me entertained. Thanks.
I use canon but am happy to look at other ‘brand’ forums as many things overlap in photography.

Feel free to post more if you have them folks.

Hog back again tonight, checking out the conservatory full of confidence. Got more biscuits for his cheek.

That photo of the hoglet is very sweet.

TandemJ – I dont truely know how any of them became like that as I knew none of them myself before they were into taking various things.

I have heard their own views and perspectives, but such are hardly neutral and may not be accurate as how many of us see ourselves with neutral perception or without adding shades of colour and self justification?

They all had some sort of problem in thier childhood, often of feeling isolated or rejected, but then so did I and I dont take anything, so a factor but not the only one.

To be honest you would need a time machine to go back and see with neutral eyes.

2 of them I know or have known pretty well. They had lives that were comfortable and ok though early 20’s to mid 30’s so it was not ongoing misery or pressure. At that period they were both quite comfortable and had no major stress factors then, they did not know each other so its not a common factor.

I still believe the need to be very important and in control is a prime factor, but you see that in bullying managers, people who hit their partners, sneering at others and various passive aggressive behaviours. I wonder if its all in the same ‘control others and feel self important’ group, using whatever techniques seem effective to the specific individual – almost chance if you grow up to drink or instead bully the office secretary.

But I could be talking utter rubbish, its just my own observational theory.

Whatever the reasons (and I really did wish to understand) you end up with a certain sort of person who will destroy their own lives and feel no concern about destroying people around them, in order to see themselves as the centre of the universe. The trouble is, as I said first of all, they are the most dangerous to vulnerable people as they promote substance abuse as glamorous, non risky, high status and just for fun and because they hold down jobs and careers, it looks plausible. But perhaps not so ‘harmless’for some of the people who follow their advice to just take some and feel better. Its very sad for all concerned.

“No one sets out to be an addict of anything”

Probably true, but we all know its a possibility if we start taking stuff. No one can say they are ‘unaware’ of the risk.

I have come across 3 people who were certainly proud to be hooked or to partake. 2 were alcoholics and 1 was the one I mentioned in earlier posts. They were not all in the same social group.

There was a definite sense of feeling special, about being a special person because of taking drugs. Both the alcoholics had that same sense of pride in being somehow different in a way they perceived as achievement and saw themselves as above non users, the non users being lame and pathetic.

I must admit it puzzles me why such destructiveness is viewed so positivly and I have never decided on a full conclusion as to why the pride. But it does give them emotional control and power over friends and relatives that perhaps other comparable family members or friends don’t have.

Making others afraid or worried on your behalf, or even angry with you, are all ways of getting what you want or manipulating people via emotions. I really think for some drug or alcohol users, its all about a massive ego and an urge to control and use other people. If they were not abusing substances to do it, they would find other ways to fulfil the same sense of huge self importance. But perhaps that in itself might count as a form of mental illness, like the more extreme world of narcissists and sociopaths?

And yes, he was stroppy. Other than the drugs problems and offers, he was in some ways the best friend I ever had, which perhaps sounds a contradiction given the drug offer, but it was a complex association. I often wondered what he would have been like without all the stuff he and his mates took. I often used to wonder if I would hear he was dead. Massive paranoia was a side effect of the stuff he took to. Marijuana for that one I think 🙁 added to the stroppy coke. God knows what the other stuff did. I was never in a drug culture myself, so was very ignorant of many of the side effects and mood alterations until I met him. I still miss his good side. I am glad though I was strong enough not to follow his path.

I dont think there was anything thier recreational group would not try, stuff I had not even heard of at the time in the papers. Often intake would be multiple substances in one evening with alchol. I don’t know how they though they could keep track of dosages in those circumstances but they were very confident it was utterly safe and not in any way destructive, just fun. I was staggered how shocked they were when one of them died.

They looked down on heroin users as scum and out of control. Beneath them.

Eventually my friend ended up flushing his stash of coke down etc the loo one night as he found it harder and harder to stop using, despite him still claiming it was recreational and of no risk at all to people like him. He was still in control. He bought some more by the end of the week. I felt very sorry for his family.

A drug user being nice and seeming to live a normal sort of life leads you to thinking this is a nice person with a career, so his views on stuff being harmless must be realistic, its not someone nasty or broken like an ‘addict’ is so often portrayed. This images sucks in the vulnerable and innocent by giving a sense of normality and the illusion of invincibility.

What was good for him ALWAYS came before what was good for his family though. We lost touch, so I don’t know what happened with drugs to him or his social group long term. I just hope they did not drag vulnerable people into the ‘its all a laugh and such fun’ fantasy. I was lucky that I was not so desperate that I took what was offered.

I told someone else this story once and their response was ‘how could you turn a chance like that down? I would have loved to try it.’ Scary.

I don’t think all drug users are on ‘self destruct’ or ‘can’t control myself’ or stuggling with a bad history.

Many of them are on ‘it won’t ever happen to me’ ‘this is totally safe cos I am not an adict’ and ‘this is a fun social thing’.

I think this class of people are a really big problem as they see drugs as harmless and NOT self destructive and end up introducing more vulnerable/damaged people than themselves to substances while advertising them as fun and harmless.

I say this from experience as at a bad time of my life, an otherwise intelligent caring person suggested they could obtain class A drugs for me to ‘try’ and that I would feel better and have no problems.

As I was already having life issues, I said I was not interested as I could just see everything getting worse by adding drugs to the mix. It seemed an insane option to take, to make things more problematic.

Not long after one of their close friends died of alcohol/drugs. The social group was very very shocked and could not believe one of their own could possibly overdose as they ‘knew how to handle stuff’. None of them gave up their drugs, not in memory of their friend, nor caring for the fears of their loved ones or family.

This sort of recreational drug user cares nothing for their loved ones and only for their own fun. Its not about self destruct its about ego and about manipulation of the emotions of people who care about them.

I feel sorry for people with rubbish backgrounds, but I feel contempt for ‘recreational users’ who drag vulnerable people into a culture where self destruction can take hold for them, if not for the originators.

http://www.succulentguide.com/cactus/?genus=Aloe&PHPSESSID=5ada38d5ec7063fd64221623ca674bb8

For anyone else with an unidentified aloe !

Full frame lenses can be at the lower end of the lens price range – the 85mm 1.8, 50mm 1.4 and 1.8 are fixed length can considered very sharp. There are others as well.

Generally EF lenses are no dearer than EF-S fittings that cover a same focal range. Unless you mean the professional ‘L’ lenses, but thats a different ball game. You dont need to run those even for the 5D2, I get good images with non L lenses on both my cameras as does a friend who runs a 5D2.

One of the things with image quality is that the lenses actually count more than the camera. You can get a sharper image with an L lens on a bottom line camera than you can get with a cheap lens on an expensive camera as so much is in the glass quality – though for most of us the non L lenses are sharp and more than acceptable. However, as an alternative your wife could consider getting better glass instead of upgrading – the glass will usually ‘outlive’ several cameras anyway.

Canon EF lenses work on all the SLRs/DSLRs Canon have made in about the last 20 years.

Canon EF-S lenses only work on crop sensor cameras. These tend to be the cameras under £1000 new, other than the D7.

If your wife has independent makes like Tamron or Sigma, some of those only work on crop cameras too, but I dont know the ranges well enough to quote on that, check their web sites.

If you wife has a lot of lenses that only work on a crop camera it might be quite an investment of money to get a new set of lenses to work on a 5D.

If like I did, she only bought lenses that work on both full frame and crop, she need not worry about buying more lenses and that factor is out of the equation.

If she shoots a lot of interiors, landscapes, wide angle pictures etc she might be better off with the 5D2 just for the wider angle of view with all lenses. If she likes wildlife, sports, picking faces out of crowds, shooting things at a distance, the crop camera might be more use.

The 7D has a better and newer design autofocus system, is better at tracking fast moving things, has a built in spirit level so you don’t get sloping pictures (mush more use than it sounds).

I use a 7D and a 5D (original model, not mark II) and find the most useful difference between them is the auto focus and using the 5D for wide angle and images in darker places.

They are all good cameras. You can download the user manuals for them from canon web site to see and compare details of focusing screens, menus, specs etc.

If you know what sort of subjects your wife likes to take or will want to start taking in the future, it will give people more info to help you with 🙂

I get fed up of people whinging about the subjects of the forum.

If you dont like the subject, don’t open the post.

One of the reasons I have been coming here so long is the huge variety of subjects covered, mixed in with some really helpful bike stuff. I have both road and mountain bikes. I dont want to have to log into some other less interesting forum if I want road bike advice. I want to read about peoples fitted kitchen problems or when to rotate thier car tyres. I have learned a lot from this forum about all sort of things that are both handy and interesting. The format of mixing it all in is great – the photographic forums I use divide topics so I end up looking in the ‘posted today’ section rather than toil all through numerous and sometimes fruitless subsections. The less relevent conversations reveal a lot about people, make it a community, make it personal. Thats just as important in many ways as just getting narrow info on mountain bikes.

Its fun here, leave it alone! 🙂

I have worked in government jobs for 20+ years and had several promotions.

I cannot afford to buy a home of my own on my pay grade. The people who work on my grade or any of the grades below me generally rent (often just rooms or bedsits) in poor areas of the city, as unless they have a partner who brings good additional income they cannot afford to buy a home either. Yes, some people get paid very well indeed in government related jobs and this pushes up the average statistics, but the larger number of people are not earning much. Many are way below £20,000 a year after years of trying their best, often in caring or service roles.

When I started work joining the pension scheme was compulsory and the employer created the pension contract. I have complied with that contract for 20 years+ obeying the rules and deductions set by my employer. Now the government wants to change it and I am being told by newspapers etc that I am a greedy bad person, for complying with the contract of my job. I will have no home when I retire, I will need my pension to rent a bedsit.

I find the attitude of many people not very kind. On this topic and often in general, people say ‘oh those people have decent sick pay, oh they have a weeks more holiday than me’ and instead of wanting to bring everyone up to a decent level of living, to work towards as many people as possible in the UK having fair pay, decent holiday allowance, the burden of fear removed if they are unfortunate enough to become longer term sick, people instead say ‘its not fair they have more than me, bring them down to my level’ which is only making their own lives worse in the long term. Bring them down to my level’ is a jealous, sulky and short sighted view – there is always someone worse off then yourself – so where do you stop – when everyone is brought down to living in a cardboard box on 50p an hour pay? Instead work to improve the standards and conditions of employment for all and by default for yourself, your family and any kids you have in future employment.

Think long term/big picture instead of tearing down lower earners to a level that suits the truly well off and their profit margins /greedy ruthless gains from privatisations.

I saw somewhere that they are renting the same space for next years exhibition.

Did not manage to get to this years in the end, so roll on next year!

“Because another man wants to take MY son and show him some wonderful stuff and I cant?”
My child is a possession. Its more important for me to get what I want than for my child to have a good time. I prefer to sulk rather than be glad of a one off opportunity for my partner to support her sister at a family event.

“If I have my son at home, how do I go out biking without social services being involved???! “
I will sulk if they go, but I wont give up anything to have quality ‘Dad time’ with my kid, in fact it never even occurred to me to offer to baby sit my son just so I could have extra time with him while at the same time showing gracious support to my partner.

I think before long you are going to be posting on here ‘my partner has left me. She says I am controlling, resentful, sulky and selfish – I cant understand why she thinks that’.

I think you need to look at your inferiority complex and that’s not a dig, you really do need to look at how you view yourself and how the image you are giving out appears to others, even if it only looks so bad because you feel vulnerable and express that in ways that are not flattering to you.

People value care, love, consideration, support and loyalty far more than they value the income of their partner. You may already be supplying these and its unfortunately just not showing here very well in your writing style, but be wary of withdrawing them in an inferiority complex sulk as you might end up with little left to trade with.

You could give your child a far far better event than the grand canyon could ever be (what 4 year old cares about a vast hole in the ground?), so make the most of this chance for you and the child – its golden!

Sorry, not time to read all of this except the OP. I would strongly recommend going to your doctor and getting them to take notes of your injuries as soon as possible, also get someone (not yourself) to take photos of the injuries next to a ruler or something that can show the size and extent of them. They could be the only evidence of you being attacked if she presses charges now or in the future. A photo is better than a fine or jail.

I would just like to thank everyone who has replied so far, as all these possibilities are worth checking out and we will mention the medical ones to the vet when we go back.

franciscobegbie – I am sorry for the loss of your cat. Awful to loose a pet isnt it. Most kind of you to reply.

Ruins your self confidence and also ruins your resume – its all so slow to occur though that you don’t realise how much of you is eaten away by the job/managers attitudes until the major damage is done. It gets harder and harder to fill in application forms for other jobs because of the self esteem loss and the decreasing work experience you are able to cite. Get out while you can. I stayed to long in similar situation as it became so hard to get out. It became a disaster.

“I thought that when using the viewfinder (i.e. when not acutally taking a photo) the camera uses a large aperture, and the aperture only actually closes when you take the photo? Non?”

Correct. But it can only give you the largest aperture (hole) it is capable of.

So a 1.4 aperture lens will let in more light to the viewfinder and the sensor than a 2.8 or a 4.0

“Also, this would be a good time for anyone without children to step away from the thread. You could never possibly understand.”

A sad post from an emotional empty and selfish person. Some of us have huge depths of feeling and have suffered enormous and sad personal loss… and yet we manage to feel this without having produced a child. Staggering isnt it, that some of us can have non-selfish, non-possesive emotions without needing such a trigger. I get so sick to death of the arrogance of people who claim they become ‘special’ the moment they produce a child and that they can then feel superior in emotion to everyone else. How utterly empty you must be.

Ah, you think I am making assumptions?… well you had no problem yourself at automatically writing childless people off as emotionally empty.

And what about the huge grief and loss that some people feel about not being able to have children? I expect their emotions are 2nd rate too?

I could (as a childless person) never possibly understand how any group of people could all go off and desert a number of children in order to drink and party. Being emotionally empty, I would never even have left my dog in those circumstances in a strange place. Why not go in 2 groups, in shifts so someone was always with the kids. But fun came first. I guess that’s what being a parent does to some, to follow the posters logic.

Britain has the biggest gap between rich and poor in Europe.
The gap is still increasing and nothing is really being done to stop it, because it is seen as desirable by both Conservatives and sadly by Labour, to their shame.

Selling the places at the best universities to the rich is just another part of that.

People have fought so many many decades, indeed longer for social progress and fairness… and now we have this stuff being resurected.
I despair.

This has been a most interesting topic.

I wonder if people who are suggesting ‘just go buy a cheap big aperture lens’ have any idea how much some lens cost, or indeed the price of the cameras/lenses the pros generally use.

Just for fun some of the prices for some of the equipment (note if there is a 2nd shooter they will have additional kit) there will be lots of other gear in addition to this stuff and flashes can be several hundred pounds each as well:

Canon EOS 5D Mark II – body only, no lens included £ 1789.00
most photographers would have 2 of these or an even dearer medium format (I think those are around £8000 plus each).

Canon 50mm f1.4 USM Lens £ 309.00
(the 1.8 is much cheaper at under £100 but the plastic lens mount is unlikely to take heavy pro work)

Canon 70-200mm f2.8L USM Lens £ 1069.00

Canon 85mm f1.2 L USM II Lens £ 1829.00

Canon 16-35mm f2.8L USM II Lens£ 1239.00

Canon 70-200mm f2.8L IS USM II Lens £ 1999.00

I don’t think you can plan very much for your children unless they are already in their teens. Who knows what they might want as a career? Or as a life/lifestyle or what policy will be the latest toy of the ruling party?

Also education may change hugely in the next few years. The government is seeking to promote private universities and private education suppliers and is known to be happy if some of the present public owned universities go bankrupt and down the pan.

Huge amounts of effort are put in by Universities to attract students from abroad, particularly non EU countries as they make so much more money from them than from ‘local’ students, so more value is placed on courting those from abroad.

You can’t count on the system we have now being the same in only say 4 or 5 years. Governments, policies etc change. The ‘only a few will charge £9000’ was clearly not the truth and the government were either fools or knew this in advance and lied for their own ends.

In a short time it could be better in some ways, or a full time degree could become non-existent as a full time option for the lower/middle classes of this country.

Many students are now travelling to Europe from here to do degrees as they often teach in English (Finland for example) and the prices are much much cheaper.

Everything is changing so big and so fast, I don’t see you can plan all that far ahead. There is no point in worrying. People survive.

Most important of all is that in most cases, people can obtain further education at a later point in time – it does not have to be an immediate continuation from school. In fact, if future students go out and experience a bit of the working world first, it can help them decide what they want to do (or not do!) with future education choices.

I respect my wife (so I am lying to her and betraying her)
I love my wife (so I am happy to make her look a fool in front of our friends and family)
I love my kids (so I am lying to them too and teaching them to never trust thier future partners)
I love my girlfriend (so she has to cut down her life and future to suit whats handy for me and never mind the consequences to her self esteem)

I love…. well quite clearly the only person you utterly truly love is yourself.

Relationships fail even when people do thier best. It happens. It is often beyond a persons control.

Lying, betrayals and deceit are a free choice only you have made, entirely for your own benefit.

I hope your friend recovers. I am sorry you are upset. But you need to work on your perspective.

Peoples method of commuting is no more important than any other trip they take. People generally don’t want to have accidents or hurt others – it brings guilt, it brings inconvenience, it raises your insurance, you get prosecuted, imprisoned or fined – its hardly something anyone aspires to. People do stupid things, make poor decisions in a brief second of miscalculation, but none of us are perfect are we?

Instead of hitting out at other people who are nothing at all to do with your friends sad situation perhaps you should lead the way and walk everywhere. Do you think you will never be the unlucky person who makes a bad decision? No one is flawless. There is no point in being aggressive towards everyone on this forum who has to drive to work, just as there is no point in your believing you yourself can never make an error or do something daft that has awful consequences.

Over confidence is a trip wire.

Aw, thanks folks – really helpful 🙂
Happy Easter.

Off to get some paper out the drawer….

My mum always cycled for fun and transport. First we biked to school with me on the back of the bike. Then I went with her on my own bike (about 3 miles each way)by the time I started junior school. At weekends and holidays we went for fun rides where the aim was to just pick roads at random and see where they went. It was exhausting (me on a Raleigh 18″ shopper type by then, weighed a ton) but a huge adventure and really taught me not to fear getting lost and to learn how to get home again ok. Moved up to a Raleigh 20″ by the time I was 11 or 12. She was sensible but when the road was clear she had no fear at all of hills and zoomed down them like she had never heard of brakes. It was a riot.

Have cycled intermittently ever since, sometimes taking a break of a couple of years, but always going back. Biking with my mum – best memories I have of my childhood. Wonderful. Exciting. So grateful to her for those times and memories.

Never had to mix chickens, but mixing pigs into an established herd can be quite brutal and aggressive. Several days of intermittent fighting and running and hiding before the new social order is established, then they are all ok long term.

Mixing goats is less successful as they have very strong mini social groups within a herd that are immediate-family based. They will tend to sort out, but view newcomers as newcomers for extended periods of time and the sort of mini ‘class system’ never really goes away.

With all of this sort of thing, having space so that the birds or animals can run away or clearly withdraw from conflicts is very important. If they don’t have enough space to show ‘submission’ or ‘avoidance’ the fighting will be much more frequent and can escalate as it pressures the top creatures to show more dominance because they see no signs of retreat in the lower animal.

Ta folks.

Ski, wondering if many will take that route as stock libraries are so vast these days. Must be cheaper than in-house or buying someone in for a day if the libraries cover what you need. No waiting or booking people either I guess.

Thanks, that’s interesting. I see some of the newspapers use Alamy credited photos.

Image sources for magazines would be of interest too.

Well done for banning the poster, troll or not.

Its really nice to see the anti gay and anti women posts being cleaned up on this site the last few months.

There are plenty of really nice ordinary people on this site who don’t find it necessary to run down harmless people, glad you are discouraging the few from spoiling a good community/forum.

Thanks mods. Good job done.