Lightroom is excellent and Adobe Camera Raw bundled with Photshop Elements is good, if you have a Canon their DPP software is pretty decent too

Only problem with Adobe is depending on the age of your camera, if its fairly recent it won’t always work with older versions of their software

What camera do you have? only asking because I have PSE 6 on disc that you could have au gratis (long as I can find it)

The last sentence above is very important and yes daresay most photos are tarted up(photgraphic term)with some sort of processing software

In your shoes I would get a decent compact camera with some manual control and image stabilisation.

Canon bundle some half decent processing software, so given decent light you should be able to take some pretty good shots

Up a ladder?

Fractured my heel when I bailed from a slipping ladder, bloody painful and badly bruised my toes from putting all the weight on them when walking

Get it x-rayed, still got problems where it mended on its own and a spur developed from the join

Have a ride along the side of the new fangled guided busway between Cambridge and St Ives. Good selection of pill boxes and a few of the mushroom variety for good measure on what was Oakington airfield

I found Bletchley Park very interesting, they were some clever people

Also if there is a problem it’s always with your kit or the line in the house, and to get an enginer out costs you money if the faults on your property, even when the whole street have the same problem,

If its a general line fault affecting others it won’t cost you anything,just make sure you prove it off your kit and internal wiring before you do anything else
Not really BT’s fault if you don’t follow the guidelines, your service provider gets charged and passes the cost on

Regarding BT how do people with it find the “Unlimited WiFi” feature.

That would be Openzone, basically an unsecured network giving you a good choice of wi-fi hotspots for agreeing to share part of your bandwidth, use whatever router you like although the new Home Hub 3 is actually very good

BT are pretty good, new Home Hub 3 is very reliable and if its available in your area Infinity is fast

Call centres can be a trial, but most of the engineers are decent enough if there is a problem

Seen a few comments on a bird forum I use, mostly positive although noise does get a mention especially if using the auto settings, guessing it bumps the iso right up
Also at full zoom its not going to be that great given its extreme range, one other thing I read was about the tripod mount being plastic, so maybe take care in that area

Sure its very good, but accept its a compact and don’t compare it to a DSLR

D7000 has come down in price recently and Nikon gearing up for announcement in October.
Rumoured to be announcement of D400 amongst others, so D300S could be a good deal pretty soon

Very hot in summer and very cold in winter, my cousin lived in Minneapolis which is very similar climate wise

A good Tripod/head is an excellent idea and having had a Manfrotto 055CB for years can fully endorse that model

Good quality circular polariser filter is a good extra too, find out what lens she uses for landscape type shots and buy one in that size, Hoya Pro are excellent quality (not from Ebay, possible snide copies)

Not everyones thing, but find a wireless remote very useful, bought a Hahnel Giga Pro, loads of functions, good range and nicely made into the bargain

Fast high capacity memory card is another idea along with spare camera batteries, always useful

One last idea how about a days photography course in her favoured subject, days tuition from a pro can make a world of difference

Have to use the company intranet through their links to book hotels which includes breakfast and evening meal plus eight quid for drinks, papers etc

Train fares can be booked too through their links, but I often book well in advance and always receiving offers (East Coast Mainline) to go 1st class, so I do
Company only allows 2nd class travel, so i look that up, take a screen print and charge them that, but pay the extra myself for first

Much more civilised and get free meals too, nice breakfast and then tea on the way home plus a comfy reclining seat in the quiet coach
My next foray opp north was only thirteen quid extra there and back, well worth it

From what I have been told its not a great idea, only need to be slightly out to mess up the glasses fit and even more risky measuring to buy contact lenses online

Got a 19″ with inbuilt DVD in the back room, not used often, but seems ok for the money (about 130 quid I think)

D30 is 3mp, D60 is 6mp same as the 10D (which doesn’t work with EF-S lenses)

Still can’t see what’s wrong with a Sony DSLR which would let you use your existing lens

Not that good, camera is only 3mp and to be honest the lens ain’t that great either, sold one I bought in a job lot for 45 quid, what Canon lens is it?

Still think you could do better unless you are paying about a 100 or so quid for the lot, no image stabilisation either which you listed as a must have

Don’t go to a restaurant where they ask for some cash upfront because you legged it on your last visit even if it was ages ago

Just ordered a 7D so not really appealing to me, i’m in the same boat having already bought into Canon and that’s why I can’t see it tempting that many long time users of other systems

Like adjusting the diopter so I can use the viewfinder without specs, would be a big loss if I couldn’t

Can you adjust the EVF viewfinders like an optical one for spectacle wearers?
Looks an interesting camera, wonder what sort of useable ISO it will have and how much noise with all those pixies

Going to need some damn fine lenses I reckon to make use of over 24mp not to mention some massive memory cards at 12fps

Blimey that’s a lot of pixies on a crop sensor, raw files will be massive
Can’t see it making massive inroads on the Canon 7D or the possible Nikon D400 that is rumoured to be coming shortly

Think Sony have in body IS too as do Pentax

Put them on a memory stick, send it to one of them with instructions to post on to the next person once the pics are downloaded

When you say share is that look at or let them have?

If its look at, how about Picasa Web Album

Reckon something like the Sony A100 would be around your price or maybe even an A200 (Sony bought out Minolta and use the same lens mount)

Final salary pension paid for 32 years until they changed it to a career average earnings from April 2009
Not too bad because I have been the highest engineering grade before management for the last thirty years

Lose a bit for retirng early, but fifty five is enough for me, so should get about 2/5ths salary and three times that as a lump sum

Wife gave up work to look after our daughter, but she had eleven years in an index linked final salary that pays at sixty and been paying into another pension scheme for the last five years

Never know might even get a state pension one day, but not betting on it

My daughter is just about to start the third year of her Optometry degree so might be able to help with an answer

If you can afford to retire at 55 you are very lucky indeed

Not all luck, left school at sixteen and worked for the same firm the past thirty six years. Only ever had one family car and older ones at that, modest holidays and live in a small 3 bed end of terrace cottage which we renovated ourselves. Wife stopped work to look after our daughter and didn’t get caught up in the cash in the equity and live like pools winners syndrome

Always surprises me how people these days don’t worry about such huge mortgages, know its all relative, but hear some scary figures talked about

Two years left on mine and owe under ten grand, thirty four years of final salary pension and hoping to retire at fifty five to have some time before i’m too knackered to enjoy it

Lightroom 3 currently a few pence under 118 quid on Amazon or if not try Elements 9

That Sony is certainly an interesting camers with the SLT technology, think the lens has to be wide open for the high burst rate though which sort of negates one of the reasons to buy a DSLR

Went to Luxemburg to watch England play a world cup qualifier back in the dark days of footie hoolies

Everywhere was shut and after the looting of the ferry duty free it was on to the main event fighting the french old bill and then their riot squad

Tear gas does a bit more than sting the eyes and being in a full scale riot with burning cars etc is a very frightening experience

We only went for a look round a foreign country and the chance to have a beer or two with the locals, some real loonies about that day.

How do you get there and back with a few quid in your shoe, no passport and dressed in just a flag and underpants

BT with the new Home Hub 3 is fine and even better with FTTC and Infinity if you can get it, FTTC does not necessarily mean Infinity is available though

If hardly anyone can get a mortgage does make me wonder who will buy all these new houses

Perhaps its a way of flooding the market to get house prices back to a normal position whereas first time buyers can actually buy, can’t see much happening until prices are back at a sensible rate

Why didn’t the government or financial institutions enforce the old style strict rules with borrowing based on earnings and a ten percent deposit required, would never have got in this mess then

Try the one in Wentworth St, just a short walk and a fair bit cheaper

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Not sure what has become of this forum, at one time the first question would have been “is she fit?”

None of that unseemly behaviour in Waitrose i’m glad to say, another good reason to shop there (also the only proper size supermarket in my town)

RIP Ronnie and Cozy

Not sure how long, before the magazine started though

I’m in Cambridgeshire, apparently they live in Dorset and my neck of the woods along with Oxfordshire

Had similar bites before, but assumed they were mozzies living in a rather wet area surrounded by gravel pits and the Great Ouse
Actually saw this little bugger and it was definitely a fly which I later identified from pictures