Hello from the North East of England

After what seems like months I have eventually spent my cash on a pentax dslr system. I am a basic point and shoot in auto mode type of guy at present with a Canon G1. I wanted something I could develop with and learn as I go on.I was pretty much sold on benefits of in body stabilisation and wanted to go the pentax route. Initially in the shop I was guided towards Nikon. The guy in the shop laughed when I mentioned Pentax. He suggested Nikon D90 with 18-135 kit. It gets good reviews so I thought we would go down that route then. When he went out back to get it he returned saying there was none in stock. Close shave there. Went back when they were in stock and another salesman told me to get a Canon instead. I was a little confused now. Further weeks passed with my nights spent in front of the computer reading reviews and logging onto forums. What I gained from this delay was that the camera body is something which is changed, but good quality lenses stay with you. Good fast pentax zooms are however expensive. I looked at what I wanted to shoot. My interests will be industrial landscape, candid family shots sometimes indoors and wildlife (birds). I wrote list after list of 3rd party fast zooms which I felt would stay with me as I develop. Then I looked at the body. My 'higher quality zooms' were going to reach 16 to around 150mm. Then the wildlife lens was going to be a sigma, either 120-400 or 150-500. I felt for what I wanted to shoot a weather resistant body would be best. This left me with either K20D or K7. I could not really justify K7 and there are some amazing flickr pics with K20D so that was to be the body. I know this will be a steep learning curve but it will give me loads of potential. To find the best price I went to www.kelkoo.co.uk and input K20D. It took me to an amazon page with a K20D + 16-50mm f2.8 DA* + 50-135mm f2.8 DA* for £1667. Now I know this is a lot of money for someone starting out but when I analyzed it it seemed quite a bargain. The cheapest I could get those lenses for was £1500 and with £150 cashback from pentax it meant the K20D would cost me £17.
Now I cant wait for it to be delivered next week. It now states it is out of stock so my fingers are crossed that I got one. I have the confirmation email anyway. Now I need to look into a flash and tripod (recommendations gratefully received). Any suggestions on books for beginners to dslr photography, websites etc would also be welcomed.

Anyway nice to meet everyone and no doubt we will chat again.

Greg

Hi Greg and Welcome to the Forum

---

Barrie
Too Old To Die Young

http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/artists/barrieforbes
https://www.flickr.com/photos/189482630@N03/

Welcome to the forum Greg, and you wont regret that combination of body and lenses.

As for guides to photography a good start might be the Magic Lantern guide to the K20D, much more informative than the manual and easier to read, ie; nothing lost in translation And of course anything you need to know thats not in the manual just ask here.

---

My Names Alan, and I'm a lensaholic.
My PPG link
My Flckr link

Welcome to the forum Greg

---

Regards Huw

flickr

Welcome to the forum Greg from one Northeasterner to another.

Welcome Greg! That is an incredibly low price for a great bit of kit, well done for not being scared off by the long string of digits

On unrelated note, how can Amazon make any money at that price? Assuming SRS aren't gouging us (and I don't for one second think they are), Amazon must be basically selling at their wholesale price.

---

Tim
AF - Pentax K5, Sigma 10-20/4-5.6, Tamron 17-50/2.8, Sigma 30/1.4, Sigma 70-200/2.8, Tamron 70-300/4-5.6
MF - Vivitar CF 28/2.8, Tamron AD2 90/2.5, MTO 1000/11
Stuff - Metz 58 AF1, Cactus v4, Nikon SB24, Raynox 150, Sigma 1.4x TC, Sigma 2x TC, Kenko 2x macro TC, Redsnapper 283 tripod, iMac 27”, Macbook Pro 17”, iPad, iPhone 3G
Flickr • Fluidr • PPG • Street • Portfolio site
Feel free to edit any of my posted photos! If I post a photo for critique, I want brutal honesty. If you don't like it, please say so and tell me why!

Welcome Greg.

Regards

Gary

---

When something goes wrong in the circus, they send clowns into the arena to distract the audience.

Welcome Greg, you will see there are quite a few North Easterners already here. There are still some great industrial landscapes to be taken in the Nortth East, especially down in your home Cleveland area.
david

---

PPG: http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/artists/davidtrout

thanks for the welcome.
Spider I'll check out the magic lantern book.

Thoughton I had planned on using SRS as they seem to support forum. I think this potential deal I got through amazon was something I could not pass up though. It is one of those deals that occasionally pop up and I may have been in right place at right time!!!!
Davidtrout - looking forward to capturing heritage of teesside and surrounding area. Should be an interesting starter project for me. Also good to see healthy north east following.

Thanks again and will continue to post.
Greg

Welcome to the forum. Got your wellies on. I gather its a bit wet up there these days---saves you going to the beach though.

Welcome again

Well, just an update re the deal I got with amazon. I half expected an email stating there had been a mistake. However the package has been shipped now and is with City Link. Cant believe my good fortune.

Other than magic lantern any other recommended reading?

Greg

Pretty good attempt at my accent there like, Gareth. Yes my knowledge is pretty scant so I will have a look down town tomorrow to see what I can pick up. Keen to get started now.

Greg

Hi and welcome to the forum!

---

Pentax K10D, *istDS
Pentax 18-55mm,50-200mm,Macro 100mm
Takumar-A 28-80mm, Sigma 170-500mm, Soligor Teleconverter x2

Finally!! Sigma 10-20mm

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.

http:/www.pentaxphotogallery.com/maliskaoosthuizen

Welcome to the forum.

---

Regards
Tom

K-1ii,K-3iii's.
SMC PENTAX-DA FISH-EYE 1:3.5-4.5 10-17mm ED [IF], SMC PENTAX-DA* 1:2.8 16-50mm ED AL [IF] SDM,
SMC PENTAX-DA 1:4 15mm ED AL Limited, SMC PENTAX-DA 1:3.2 21mm AL Limited,
SMC PENTAX-F 1:2.8 28mm, SMC PENTAX-FA 1:2 35mm AL,
SMC PENTAX-FA 1:1.4 50mm, SMC PENTAX-DA 1:2.4 70mm Limited,
SMC PENTAX-D FA MACRO 1:2.8 100mm WR, SMC PENTAX-DA* 1:4 300mm ED [IF] SDM,
HD PENTAX-DA 1:5.6 560mm ED AW,
HD PENTAX -DA 1.4x AW AF REAR CONVERTER,
PENTAX AF160FC Auto Macro Ring Flash.

https://pentaxphotogallery.com/artist-gallery/?artist_id=20168301

Hi and welcome to the forum