Couldn't tell you which camera (which camera), but you want to have the film speed (or digital equivalent) set as high as possible, the shutter speed as fast, and the aperture as large as possible. That will maximise the light and the light sensitivity.

eta: Oh, and don't forget bracing as firmly as possible.

Anyone know a simple way to convert a date in US format (eg: "11/2/2007") to English format? (eg: in dd/mm/yyyy instead of mm/dd/yyyy) using XSL?

I mean, aside from writing code that deconstructs the date and reconstructs it into the English format - is there a built-in conversion for this?

meara, you'd do best with a DSLR with an image stabilized lens. I've been able to take handheld shots with very slow shutter speeds with mine. It's gained be probably two stops, I've had luck with handheld shots as slow a 1/6 of a second shutter speed.

Anyone know a simple way to convert a date in US format (eg: "11/2/2007") to English format? (eg: in dd/mm/yyyy instead of mm/dd/yyyy) using XSL?

XSLT 2.0 has built-in regular expressions. If you don't have XSLT 2.0, your particular vendor might include some kind of non-standard regexp extension. Otherwise, you'll have to futz around with substring-before, substring-after, and concat.

XSLT 2.0 has built-in regular expressions. If you don't have XSLT 2.0, your particular vendor might include some kind of non-standard regexp extension.

How do I tell what version the servers are using? Is the easiest way just to specify 2.0 in the XSL and see if it errors?

So in this line:

<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:rs="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:rowset" xmlns:z="#RowsetSchema" version="1.0">

the "1.0" is the XSLT version no.?

Yeah, it's XSLT 1.0.

You'll have to use:

concat(substring-before(substring-after(date, "/"), "/"), "/", substring-before(date, "/"), "/", substring-after(substring-after(date, "/"), "/"))

I feel like I have a lot to add, but my brains a bit addled. So I'll only say this (and it may drive Tom mad) all that stuff about aperature and F-stops was really valuable to learn, and then really easy to forget as taking pictures became more instinctive.

Huh, I used to shoot indoor theatrical shots with 800 speed film. Very low light. I'd have to be careful to have a stable shooting platform, but I always got lots of very good shots.

400 was usually my default film speed and I got some pretty good theatre shots.

Megan, I have a K1000 too, but I haven't actually used it in yonks.

What I really have found I need is a camera that will let me take good pictures of things that are happening on stage, well lit on stage (and likely moving around quickly on stage), when I am in a crowd, in the dark. AKA "I'm at a drag show". What the heck camera and setting do I use for THAT?

Meara, I have a little Canon A85 digital and I have found that the best setting for taking night action shots is the "action setting" (It's one of thsoe cameras with settings for portraits, landscape, action, etc.) , because it gives you quick shutter speeds. In plain autofocus and all those other specialized settings they seem to put more priority on aperture over shutter speed, leaving you with blurry messes. I missed many photos of my nephew in the Canada Day parade one year before I figured that out.

I was really pulling for the special adapter a company was working on about 10 years ago that would have let me take the back door off my K1000 and make it digital. (or other SLR)

I wonder whatever happened to that? It must have run into price/performance and other issues.

My cordless phone is for crap. I think it's about time I stop trying to leverage my investment in Uniden's 5.8GHz technology and start from scratch--but where is the market now? What's clean and crisp tech? I have no interest in an answering machine--I just need something with expandable cordless handsets. Anything else that's default these days is probably enough.