bmwhere?

Welcome back! Still curious about the river thing though? Not trying to drive on ice were you?

Lol!

Welcome

Might as well be

I'm building a fighter jet!

There's only 1 Preston

You lived in Preston and chose to leave??? ...oh, wait a minute, I can't talk

Welcome

AFAIK, UK cars were chipped from at least 98MY. Imports maybe not!

Welcome to the club

Unfortunately that probably is about right! I believe the keys have a chip in them for the immobiliser, I'm sure they don't cost quite that much to make, but they use it to justify the high price!

Welcome to the forum

Jamie, you can only upload your own photo as a member, but as a non member you should still be able to set your avatar from one of the library pictures. Have a look under your avatar settings on your control panel and there should be an option to pick a picture from the Pre-installed avatars (there are three galleries to choose from)!

Welcome to the club

Welcome to the forum

As 4hero says, using the manual mode is well worth it, but takes some time to learn how to use it and sometimes, like when you have friends or family complaining you take too long taking photos, the semi-auto modes can be pretty useful too! In your photos above where the sky is all washed out, the problem is the camera has taken the light reading from the black car and set the camera from that, so the brighter sky is over exposed. There are two reasonably simple ways you can quickly compensate for this while using the semi-auto modes on your camera. 1. Exposure locking Frame your picture as you want it, then move the camera to centre on the brighter area e.g. point at the sky. Half press the shutter and the camera will auto focus and take a light reading, at this point press the Exposure lock button (not sure if its the same on a Nikon, but on Canons its a "*" button just under your thumb), you should see the exposure lock indicator appear in the viewfinder. Now re-frame the picture you actually want and half press again, this time the camera will only auto focus and keep the locked light readings - now take the photo and the sky should appear correctly. Obviously the exposure balance will depend on where you take the light reading, if its too light, your car will be under exposed, so you need to find the right balance, although you can also use fill in flash to compensate for the darker subject! 2. Exposure Compensation On a Nikon I'm completely lost how to do this, but there is a setting that allows you to adjust you exposure level. You may have to go into the menu to select the function to adjust the setting, its normally shown as like a scaled ruler display with a dot that shows the current setting and can usually also be seen in the viewfinder. You can change the exposure compensation either to the left (darker) or to the right (lighter) in 1/3EV (or maybe 1/2EV) steps. Using this feature, you take the photo as normal just framing the car and the compensation value you set will adjust the exposure. So in this case you would set a couple of stops to the left and the sky should be correctly exposed. Once you learn how to use them, they are two handy features to quickly get the right exposure while keeping the camera semi-auto and avoiding annoying your friends or family

2nd for hand-luggage!!! I may sometimes put the battery charger in the suitcase, but camera and lenses all go in my hand luggage! Also a tip for travelling outside the EU, if you have new(ish) kit, take the receipt with you, can save a lot of hassle at customs if they decide to do a spot check!

I was thinking the same thing... 4 door saloon under £5K for track use, scooby would be the obvious choice!

Now that's a cracking deal for a semi-pro camera if ever I saw one!

You'd have to ask 4hero exactly how he got those results, he may have done a bit of post processing on them, although having a Canon 7D and L-Series glass would certainly help a bit Not sure what controls Nikon's have for BW photography, but the newer Canons (at least since the 450D) you can apply a colour filter effect to BW shooting that can emphasise colours differently depending on which filter effect you use. Have a look here for a brief description of the effects of different colour filters for BW photography!

Looks great so far... Look forward to seeing more results

I've heard of other hatch owners having a similar problem! IIRC its something to do with some part of the alarm system fitted behind the glove box just hanging loose. I believe it can be secured to stop the rattling. Have a word with your dealer, they should fix it under warranty!

Welcome

Let me know what you think of the 7D! Was toying with the idea of an upgrade myself

The difference between them all is so small that the average amateur will get the best results from the one they find easiest to use. Generally speaking, the body is not so important for amateurs, the lenses are where its really worth investing the money. Although having said that, the real budget entry level such as the Canon 1000D are quite restricted, so it really is worth spending a fraction more for something around the 450D mark, then you have a body that you would never need to upgrade unless you become a pro! There's some great, barely used second hand kit knocking around on Ebay (people always feel then need to upgrade every time they bring out a new body!), so you should be able to pick up a decent mid-amateur range body & lens without breaking the bank! First job though, have a play with the different bodies and find out which make you are most comfortable using!