RTFM

Father Christmas was kind enough to bring me a new camera lens: slightly telephoto (just right for portraits), large maximum aperture (for shooting in low light, and for throwing the background out of focus), and macro capability (it'll focus so close that I can fill the frame with a postage stamp). By my standards it was a lot of money, and I've been disappointed that I've had so little time to play with it.

Without the temporary job, I'd have had plenty of time to play, but no money to buy it. Typical.

So when I went to Fuencaliente last week, to photograph the animals being blessed, I took it with me.

And it wouldn't work. Every time I tried, I got an error message "F--"

Which is about what I said. Thank goodness I had the two zoom lenses that came with the body.

The new lens wouldn't work at home either. I didn't have time to look for the manual just then, as I have to do most of the cleaning and cooking at weekends. And when I finally had time to look, I couldn't find it. I spent hours not finding it.

I began to get worried. If my shiny, new lens had broken, I had to get it back to the shop while it was still under guarantee. On the other hand, I wasn't used to it, and maybe I was doing something dumb. Definitely a time for the old software engineer's standby - RTFM: Read the Manual.

I didn't have time to look for the manual just then, as I have to do most of the cleaning and cooking at weekends. And when I finally had time to look, I couldn't find it. I spent hours not finding it.

Yesterday my husband had the brilliant idea of looking for the manual online. And this afternoon, I found it (at http://www.pentaximaging.com/files/manual/K10D_Manual.pdf
for anyone with the same problem)

And the lens is fine, thank goodness. That's the error message for when you're trying to use a silly aperture. I set to to automatic aperture, and took this photo of a Christmas tree bauble that doesn't seem to have made it back into storage yet.

Phew!