£1500 to spend, decisions, decisions!!

Well, it's 2 in the morning, I am getting drunk, celebrating turning $8 into $3000 on Full Tilt Poker!

Seeing as though with my last poker wins I bought a K10D for the better half that I wanted to surprise her with for Xmas but couldn't afford, I'm now going to be greedy and spend this one on myself!

The trouble is, what on?

As you can tell from my sig, I currently have both DA*'s, a 50 1.4, and a K10D Grand Prix. The missus has my old K10D, and we will probably sell the kit lens and a Sigma 70-300mm on ebay, giving her the Pentax 18-250mm to replace them.

(There was no beer in the fridge, so just finishing off the last of the box of white wine that I found in the fridge (3 full glasses!) and I've just spotted a bottle of vodka, so bear with me!)

Obviously, I could now afford a K20D. With plans to possibly go into wedding photography next year, this has plenty of plus points, i.e. better low light shooting for churches etc., a lot quieter, and the killer app, image quality. (With money left over for another lens!)

Or...

Between us we have 2x K10D's with grips and extra batteries etc, a 16-50mm DA*, 50-135mm DA* and a decent Manfrotto tripod which I believe would probably be good enough to start shooting a wedding with. Therefore we would probably be better off buying 2 or 3 decent prime lenses and spending the rest of the year improving our techniques.

Other considerations:-

Would like a damn good photo printer. The Epson R1900 has a lot of appeal!

We have (I believe!) plenty of computing power, (A G5 Imac and a P4 Alienware laptop), so would a decent investment in software be a good idea? (Is Photoshop Elements enough?)

I am getting drunk.

Plan to be going to the Focus in Imaging show at the end of the month, so can quite easily wait to play with some toys.

The Sigma 50-500mm appeals (but only IF they do it in HSM, they have announced that they are starting to support this on Pentax now!)

Sigma and Tamron are both releasing (both in full frame I believe!) a 70-200mm 2.8 (which would make an effective 100 - 300mm 2.8 ) which I think would compliment my existing lenses. (PS Spellchecker thinks Tamron should be Tampon!)

The wine has gone, the vodka has a big drink me sign above it!

It will probably take 7-10 days before the money is in my account, and I would have sobered up by then!

Taking all this into consideration, what would you be tempted to do?

All advice greatly received of course!

Regards

Unlocker

PS its 2.30am now, fag and vodka time!

Congratulations and I hope your head does not ache too much this morning

For me FA 31 and 77 ltds and DA12-24. If I got a good deal I would also throw in a new flash as well

Steve

Congratulations! To make things a whole lot easier for you I'll send you my bank details.

Steve

A full version of Photoshop could be the most useful purchase, especially if you are looking to do weddingd.

I agree and a top of the range printer that can do A3. Oh and a professionally designed wesite if you don't already have one.

If I was doing wedding then the two DA* are a good bet (you will need the f2., however, remember that you don't want to be changing lens all the time so you may well need two bodies (K20D as main with K10D as backup!). Also a good supply of betteries and the a very good flash such as the Sigma EF 530 DG SUPER or the Pentax AF-540 FGZ if you dont already have one of these.

Or....., pay off the judges on every competition round to come, and deserve fame and honour for the rest of your stay on this forum
Martin.

I'm open to bribery
Personally I think you need to bribe the judges to place you second in the comps - so you don't have to judge the following week.

Hows the head today Unlocker?

Boy, do I have a hangover!

Thanks for the advice guys! The 31 & 77 ltds are definately on my shopping list, I just don't know how much better than the DA*'s they would be?

The full copy of Photoshop is definately up there too, and we may have an upgrade path available through our copy of Studio MX (Adobe bought out Macromedia, so we can use this to upgrade to a suite of products). The inexperience here would be just how much more of an improvement it would be over PS Elements? Many users here say that Elements does most needed things, so what would I be missing?

@ beakynet, what do you mean by f2? a Limited lens? We would be working as a team if we go into weddings, so we already have 2x K10D bodies, grips, batteries etc. We already have a Metz 58 flashgun, which is comparable to the others you mentioned, so we should be alright there, perhaps another one for the 2nd body though! Already have my eyes on an Epson R1900 A3 printer, going the the imaging show at the end of the month, so will hopefully be doing LOADS of test prints to confirm. A professional looking website the better half can do as she has a design degree, so perhaps a design suite that includes Photoshop, Dreamweaver etc. would be a better option?

As I said, choices, choices!

Looks like I need another win!

Thanks for all the advice guys, really appreciated, keep em coming, especially advice on those 2 ltds. If anyone has any comparison shots of these against the DA*'s, would really appreciate it!

PS, thanks for all the congratulations, I really am bloody damn chuffed, just not sure if it shows!

I'm sure my head will be fine sometime tomorrow, I'm only on my 3rd coffee!

Bribery gets you everywhere!

(But i'm not THAT drunk!)

Although that looks like "...you will need the f2 'cool!'" it actually meant "f2.8", but when you put a bracket after an 8 you get the cool emoticon. Happens quite frequently.



Dan

P.S. Congrats on your win, and surprisingly coherent post considering your celebrations.

A K20D, 31 & 77 Ltds, and a full spec photoshop will not leave you much change (if any) out of your £1500. Possibly just enough left for another bottle of vodka and maybe some beers for the fridge. Enjoy.

PS: If you think the DA*'s are good, wait 'til you've seen some results from the Ltd's.

If I was in your shoes and thinking of doing wedding photography I'd probably skip any new lenses and spend the money on Pocket Wizards (for more reliable off-camera flash), one of those angle bracket things (I'm sure someone will know the proper name) that allows you to take photos in portrait mode whilst leaving the flash above the lens, a nice big reflector, and budget for a reasonable print run on some glossy brochures to leave at venues - the best website in the world won't bring business in like a printed brochure in that game.

If you've any money left after that I'd look at a macro lens (shots of the rings, etc). The Limiteds are very nice (well, my 43 is and all those who own the 31 & 77 seem to love theirs too), but I don't think they'd be right at the top of my priority list.

That's my opinion anyway.

Or... you could use the money to book yourself into rehab. Especially if you keep drinking my wine!!

Congrats sweetie on your win, I promise I will not pressure you into spending your money on me like I did last time with the K10D

If you are still not sure, you can get my wish list if you send me a personal message and I promise to leave room in your budget for P&P