I think, my friend, that if you could see the facial expressions and hear my tone of voice, when I joke about such things, you'd know that my remarks were in no way intended for anyone to take seriously. I apologise if it doesn't translate into type very well. Apologise again if it offended you.

helps when you c know what u r looking for.....I used what I had laying around. glad to have options.

pentaxian450 you are right, of course, I intend to see Mac. but me and my friends have had a "The French Hate me" joke running for nearly twenty years.....started on a bike trip, some where just inside the Quebec border, incredibly rude people at a restaurant...that joke has been running for so long now, it's like a bad habit.
I'm sure Quebec is beautiful. But the French hate me and want to kill me in my sleep.

(renegotiate for a liver and lots of scotch too)
I told Gerri to buy lot's of insurance....life isurance....I'm worth wayyyyy more dead than alive....
now if only cameras came in boxes the size motorcycles come in....Serendipity wouln't have to worry about being homeless.....

Well Galoot...what can I say...we spend all our time telling them to "Go to school, get good grades....get smart"
next thing you know, they're outsmarting you....
personally, there are days when I wish I had never even taught mine to speak.
New York might be nice!

here's how I get my elinchrom skyports to play nice with my portable flash units.....
needed on $15.00 pc to hotshoe adaptor. one $3.00 mono headphone jack.
cut off pc socket, solder on headphone jack.
done.

Got mine already.
Yamaha Fz1.
will use it to haul my butt, and my k10 out to where the photos are waiting to be made!
East coast here I come!
hwy 44 to Kenora, hy1 to ThunderBay, Superior route to North Bay, hwy 17 to Ottawa, Visit Mac in Montreal, Put all 150 horsepower to the ground, to get through Qubec as fast as humanly possible (hopefully without having to stop) and Atlantic Canada is mine to Explore!

if you post this same question in a Nikon owners forum, you would get dozens of answers on why nikon is better. what would you expect here?

if money is an issue, look at the cost/availibility/compatibility of used lenses as well as new.

If you go Pentax, for the types of photography you mentioned, and cost issues....I'd look at the 50mm 1.4 as my first lens choice and the 16-45 as my second.......(compared to the cost of the 18-200, you could get both)

can I add two for you?

A little boy sitting on Grandpa's knee....

"Grampa...what noise do frogs make?"

"Oh I don't know... NEE-DEEP" said gramps.

"No, no!" said the boy "That's not what they say!, What do they say?"

"Oh, geez, well how' bout RIBBIT?" asked Grandpa.

"No, no, what else do they say!!!"

"I don't understand" said Gramps"Why is this so important?"

"Dad said when you CROAK; we're all going to Disneyland!!!"




then there was the bar patron and the bartender, having a chat.
All of a sudden this old dog wanders into the bar, lays down and starts licking his privates....

"I sure wish I could do that" proclaimed the bar patron.
"You Can!" said the bartender "But you might want to try petting him and getting to know him first".

That's the difference between men and women.
A man will spend $20.00 on a ten dollar item he needs, cause he wants it now.
A woman will spend $10.00 on a twenty dollar item she doesn't need, cause it's on sale now.

on the positive side, my fellow bikers on this forum, will understand....
drop a down payment on a new bike and make payments for two years...vs buying a used bike outright and no payments...
now factor in the fact that this bike is mint, low miles, well maintained, and is still an upgrade over my aging tired old bike....