Nice photos and the way the Meercat looks back over his shoulder is nice.
The tiger shot is also pleasant to look at but there is a white haze or something.

One question though why don't you post it in the photo section :
And fill in your location please, don't know why but some forum members want to stalk you
ps. not me though I swear!

Chris from SRS microsystems has a refurb K110D now for £140
Give them a call I would say
the forum topic
SRS sits

Hello Susan

if you see them through the viewfinder and on your photos the lesn is dirty.
If it's just when you look through your viewfinder it's the viewfinder or mirror and if it's only on your photos it's your sensor.
Since it is both clean your lens, i simply use those wipes you get when you have glasses (those dry fine cotton cloths), they work fine for me for most things.

it can also be your viewfinder and sensor is dirty. take of the lens and see if you still have the dirt on your photo and viewfinder

edit
quite nice you get 2 different replies now, try that of John first and if that doesnt help look fir dirt if you can't find any we might be able to tell you more if you let us show a photo with the smudge on it.

They are both good flashes.
I've the AF540 since I like the controll more and has more coverage and is more powerfull then the Metz 85.
The secondary reflector off the Metz 58 might come in handy but never miss it so far though but it also had a strobe mode that the pentax miss.
Just go to the shop and see what you like that's the easiest way since they both have there strong and weak points but are quite similar for the basic functions so you can't go wrong.

Here you can compare them a bit link and for the difference off controll just try it in the shop.

Hi Matty welcome to the Forum.

It's really what you want to do with the camera with decides what for lens you will use. The best way is to get the good lenses from the started and not trying to save your budget on buying cheap, you will always end up buying it anyway.

The 18-55 mark II is a fine lens for a kit lens and will do you certainly good for the first few years. You might want to get the DA 16-45 f/4 instead if you are into landscape since it's wider and much sharper then the kitlens but if you would hardly use it there isn't much sense into buy it. If you want to do portrait the DA 17-70 would be the preferd option since the range 50-70 is very usefull then. so that's something to decide.

the DA 18-250 preforms almost the same as the kitlens in that range and onto high in the 100mm it's quite good. It's the trade off that you make to have an all in one lens, it does everything good but not as good as a dictated lens will.

The DA 55-200 preforms the same as the 18-250 I think but does it for far less money. the DA 50-300 would be you better option and with the length going to 300mm it will do well for bird and wildlife photography.

It's really where your interest are that decides what do get, most will go for the combination DA 16-45 and DA 50-300 you have 2 good lenses that will do almost everything and the little gap is solved by one step forward or backward
Most will also get the FA 50mm f/1.4 for the aperture and the image quality since almost nothing can beat a prime lens.

Like I said a good lens will last you a life time so don't be afraid to spend some money on that and don't make fast desicions like buying the 18-250 and find out it isn't for you and want more reach and you get the 50-300. if that would happen you would be better of with the 18-55 and the 50-300 to start with and buy a lens that suit your purpose if you want the best result.

edit: typos

Pentax always tends to underexpose also without shooting with flash, might this have something to do with it, since Prieni said it use the sensor of the camera with P-TTL?

I also have no problems, maybe we should make a poll out of this

Andrew, just add some spaces into it so that we can end this useless topic

One of these maybe? link
I so want the pro 9500 but I just cant justify the cost of it

too bad to hear that, the other Pentax models have an option to switch it off though but they have a CCD sensor and not a CMOS which you would prefer I believe.
I don't know the amount of exposure time you use but it would only make a dark image over the 0.3 sec and with the useful Multi-exposure (2 to 9 shots in one photo/file) or Interval shooting (1-99 separate shots) you can make several shots and combine them in one photo. Some astro-photographers here have suggest me to do that with the K10D instead of a long exposure.

Isn't there someone skilled enough to add a off function?
maybe if you can change the time of the current ON function to something like 120 seconds that would do the trick I believe, you would still have the AUTO function if you want to use it.

Pentax have said after the K10D that the next camera would have a better sensor or better AF since they don't have time and money to spend on both. Since the K20D has a new and better sensor there are some high hopes for a new AF system, just keep our fingers crossed.

You should mention that the low end models of Canon don't have spot metering, it's far more useful then a faster AF imho, certainly with airshows during bright days