Wonderful Open Mike again, Mike. My Technics direct drive turntable is still ready to roll, but it's impossible to find decent needle element replacements here in the Netherlands. Vinyl is getting more attractive by the year. Some albums come with an mp3 download coupon of the album. I would start buying vinyl again ...today.. if every new release came with a drm-free mp3 download coupon. Hey Sony, Warner, BMG and Virgins of this world, are you reading along? Guess not. I still miss the giant size record covers and readable lyrics inside. Any photographer and music fanatic must miss the 12" format. Keep the mike open and flip that disc.

Great series Ctein, thanx. I have one or two questions, if I may, about scanning before embarking on scanning all my color negative films again this winter on the Minolta 5400 II. - how does the Expose To The Right practice of digital capture translate to scanning color negatives? Around half of the imagefile data of a digicam are in the brightest zone. Can we translate this to scanning color negatives somehow and what would be best practice? Do you leave some room on the left and/or right of the histogram at the scanning stage? - is it best to invert the negative image in the scanning software or Photoshop?; - what it comes down to is... what would be best practice at the scanning stage in order to preserve highlight and shadow detail (with room to spare in post). Is there some set of rules after the scan preview to adjust settings for the actual scan regarding image adjustments or can a straight 'leave as it is scan' work well? Jan

Ctein, Have you experimented with manual focus and with continuous shooting? Autofocusing takes time and image stablization can interfere. Especially when your camera (like most) gives getting the shot priority over complete and accurate focus. The whole process of half pressing the button to activate focus and IS I would assume (I use Canon) is difficult to judge on in boby stabilized systems, since you cannot see what's happening (opposed to lens IS). Shooting multiple shots (burst) gives the system more time, bypasses the shutter priority and also reduces the shutter pressing motion.