First DSLR...please help me...pleaseee! :)

Dan, with regard to software have a look at Photoshop Elements. It does nearly everything full Photoshop does, certainly everything a novice at digital photography would want, and costs a fraction of the price.

The newest version is 9 but you can get the earlier versions for a lot less money. Don't go any earlier than Photoshop 6 if you want to be able to shoot K20D PEFs and be able to handle them though. K20D DNGs are huge so I wouldn't use DNG on a K20D.

GIMP will do everything you need, though I am not an expert on its use. It reads RAW or you can use a plugin like UFRaw for extended support.

I own a K-x and really shoot low light often.. but I prefer the K20D. Not only is it nicer ergonomically, I find the RAW files take a lot more manipulation. My experience is that I get lower noise images out of untouched high ISO files on the K-x but then I can't do much to improve them. Whereas I can distinctly improve K20D images without them turning to mush (Using Noise Ninja). In side-by-side comparisons of my actual workflow I got at best one stop more out of the K-x.

But I lost more shots, since the viewfinder on the K20D makes it easier to get exact focus.

One day someone will give me a K-5 but until then...

Gimp and Picasa are fine if you want to work with JPG however if you will shoot in RAW you might want to look at other software.
Most software that specially can handle RAW mimic the Darkroom so if you know you way around that a bit you might be able to get a long quite well with such a program.

Here is an small list of opensource RAW software. http://osp.wikidot.com/raw
If you like to edit your photos slightly than RAW is the way to go.

There is more opensource to be found on that page and how to do things.

Also, if you are still a student then you can get very good discounts on Lightroom for your raw processing. I'm not sure about the Italian price, but for the UK education store it's just over £60. That's a LOT of software for the price!

A student... buying software?

No they are not

There's a few complete and utter idiots here

One of which can't take pictures and says some outrageously insulting things. She seems to be protected by the mods because anyone who challenges her arguments gets banned from particular threads.

Anyway, that's my rant over - welcome to the forum

Good morning forum!
I'll follow your advice and I'll go for the used K20d from Dave!

I CAN'T WAIT TO PUT MY HANDS ON IT!!!


I like to use Ubuntu or a "plain" Windows XP with OpenOffice, GIMP, etch...
I don't like (and I could afford) to buy software but I would NEVER use pirate ones...

This will be a long weekend of study, thanks a lot for the links and the guides!

Good choice, will expect my usual 20% sellers fee from him.

hihihihi!

Have fun with it! There is a lot to learn but that is part of the excitement. I'd say it took me a year to get comfortable, and that was after a good grounding in film.

I think Lightroom is far more useful than Elements. The library and adjustment features combined make it very easy to sort and work on photos.

For anything that requires more editing I still use Elements 2 which must be about 8 years old now. Still does what I need and doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

Where from ?? I can only find CS5 !? :

In the netherlands you can't upgrade those licenses if LR4 or CS6 is here you need to buy a whole new licenses...

Maybe but unless you can get a student discount it is an expensive piece of software. Elements can do pretty much everything anyone needs to start with, and Lightroom can be added later when finances allow if you so choose.

If using a Mac then Aperture 3 is only US$79 now - bargain of the Century in software terms.