I shoot in my spare time too. Three magazine columns per month, heavy on photos and a fair amount of text. I shoot for my own reasons all week long and through the weekend. My answers to your questions: 1. How often do people have camera bodies CLA'd? [ppro] Well basically I take my gear to the shop when it stops working properly. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." I have enough cameras that I would not be left "up a creek without a paddle". 2. Should lenses be similarly maintained? [ppro] I'm using nice SMCT's that don't seem to come to grief. I had a couple that I acquired with sticky diaphragms fixed and took one zoom apart for a fungus among us, but other than that have never had a lens in the shop. (see the answer to #1 above) 3. Has anyone ever evolved a good system for writing down people's IDs when shooting pix of a lot of people at an event? [ppro] If you are shooting posed groups, you are best to make the shot after telling everyone to stay put after you finish, then work left to right, front to back, and dismiss each in turn after you get their name. For times when you have a lot of ground to cover, you should delegate this task to your assistant. (No assistant? Find someone who wants to learn from you and make this the price of their tutelage.) 4. Do I want an MZ-S? [ppro] It seems like you pretty well covered that yourself when you spoke of your gear and the relevance of it to your work. If you want to show a profit, you'll be working a lot more gigs to break even. But even if you are smart enough to know that the gear is not the thing, if you are like a lot of people (I include myself in this) you like a nice camera, and if you really are not just in it for the money, and nothing is going to go unpaid, then, why not? ppro - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
