What to buy - seeking comments

I would welcome comments and/or suggestions on the following. For the last 13 yrs I have used a SF7 latterly with a SMC 28 - 200 lens. Our photography is basically a colour print record of our life and travels. I have got the urge to upgrade my camera. Naturally we have discussed going digital but have conclued this is not for us (too time consumimg and no colour printer). So what to Buy? I do no think my level of photography justifies spending on an MZS so have homed in on an MZ3 body with my existing lens. Occasionly we take slides as well to illustrate talks on our travels so we also use to compacts a Super105 and an Espio 928M

If you look around you can get a MZ-S for slightly more than 躔, I've got mine, here in Dublin, for €880... it's a terrific camera

Unless you need some of the 'extra' features on the MZ3 over the MZ5n I would be more inclined to save the cash and go for the MZ5n. There are some great deals about at the moment (less than £300 including 28-80 lens). I have found it to be a brilliant little camera which has tempted me back to Pentax autofocus after a flirtation with another make!

I agree with Stephen - the MZ5n does almost everything the MZ3 does.
As you are taking slides, the panoramic feature of both these models could be very useful. I am not sure that the MZ-S continues with this feature. I also like the conventional shutter speed dials of the 5n/3 models and I can confirm that both of these cameras operate smoothly and efficiently.
Finally, the SLRs mentioned are so small and light I can't see any advantage to using any "compact". SLR viewing for transparencies has to win every time!
A general advantage of all Pentax SLRs is that you can use all lenses going back as far as the screw-thread Spotmatic, and there are some terrific bargains to be had in the second hand lens market. I use quite a few of the M series lenses, and they are superb.

(Edited by johnriley at 3:02 pm on April 6, 2002)

No, the MZ-S do not have the panoramic feature... but, why to transform a 35mm film format into APS -anyway???

The only reason is where the visualised picture suits a panoramic format - it saves masking down a slide with aluminium foil!

Thank you all for your comments. In the event I followed my own conclusions and have now had a MZ 3 for a week - I feel very happy with it and am very pleased with the results of my first trial film.