Yes you're right Gwyn, out of my head up to €500 is insured by the standard... seems Huw need to give me some discount

Geoff that's dynamic contrast, the static contrast is 1000:1 of the LG
The only problem is that it is a TN Panel and they aren't that good in the range of colours they can display.

The Hewlett-Packard LP2475w is an interesting screen, you might think it's a bit expensive but worth the money though.

Do we have much choice if we live in places like the UK or NL, if you wait for good weather you're at home 50% of the time

Might be a good idea for shooting child portraits

From the UK to the NL isn't so exciting, if it was to Spain or Italy now that's another story so let's hope Huw will consider selling to the NL since I find the DA*16-50 quite attracting but I ain't 100% sure I've the cash for it... Will need to look at my bank account and other things first

The problem is there is so much going on that there is not a simple answer what the best system is for someone.

If you need to buy a new PC now and want to keep that running for 4 years up to 6 years with a update.
Then you come close to something like this.
Processor: Intel i5 750 or on budget AMD Phenom II X4 Black Edition 955 or 965
RAM memory: 2x2GB RAM DDR3 1600 MHz with CL8 8-8-24 timing seems to be reasonable
Graphics: ATI 5770 or upcoming Nvidia fermi cards (GTX 4##) but you need to wait a few months, or a Nvidia GTX 260

Around the 600+ watt power-supply should be enough.

And windows 7 64bit for addressing the extra RAM memory, or other 64bit OS of course

(I think most of us will agree to this setup)

For the motherboard, I would check if you've SATA 3.0 and USB 3 or else you might be tempted to buy a new motherboard or extension cards for that over a year or two.
If you get a motherboard yourself make sure the processor fits!!!
And get a decent cooler for the CPU instead of the stock cooler from AMD or Intel.

For storage.
Depends on your budget if you want SSD for programs or not.
If you go for an SSD take a look at the Corsair SSD nova series, they look good on paper.
For storage of information/photos you want a normal disk, 1TB is fine and you can do all fancy kind of things with multiple disk but that's another matter.

Basicly want you want to know is.
RAID 1 = 2 disk both acting the same, so basicly two diaries you write the same things in as a backup. The thing is you've only space of one disk.
RAID 5 = 3+ disks, backup for 1 disk failure plus the advantage that you increase your read speed and you only lose 1 disk of space so 3 X 3TB would leave you with 2TB storage space.

If backup is important RAID 1 is nice to have or else work with a external harddisk and backup regularly that's also a bit saver option but not as convenient.

For monitor.
- don't get a TN type of screen, those have poor colour depth. Look for ISP or PVA types and variations.
- get one with a static contrast of 1:1000 or at least 1:800 (not dynamic contrast!)
- Decent resolution (Above 21 inch at least 1920x1080 till 24inch, you can find 2048x1152 panels at 23inch)

Nothing is absolute what I say so please feel free to not agree

If you're a bit patient and handy you could build it yourself, it's pretty Murphy prove.

Paul the DA* lens & the WR lens are weather-sealed
And the DFA 645 lenses also.

I've rinsed my K10D twice already and it has survived quite some some rain with the DA*50-135, I'm quite confident with the WR.

Yes the search indeed needs to be improved from what I've experience so far and I'm still off opinion that the General Digital Photography chat is used to general, it's not for nothing under the chapter Digital

Maybe we should have a "bar" section where we can talk about beer, music, films and all the other things not photography related then the general chat is only for photography related stuff and it keeps the forum cleaner.

These sites summarize it quite well already.
http://www.galitz.co.il/en/articles.html

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials.htm

http://www.photozone.de/Imaging

http://www.photozone.de/slr-vs-rangefinder

http://www.photozone.de/Technique