Laughing? Not at all. I've just ordered my second D body before this publicity cleans out the last stocks. In penning a eulogy to the D, I convinced myself, if nobody else, that one couldn't afford NOT to buy one at these prices.

For those who haven't taken the plunge, all you really need (assuming you have Pentax lenses already, and a computer) are the body (£599.99), a card (say £50), some NIMH batteries (£9.00 approx inc charger from 7day Shop) and a card reader (£6.00, if your computer doesn't have one). Total £665.00. It'll pay for itself in a year or less.

Of course, if you have a couple of good bodies, they'll offset the price further. Buy an old Spotmatic for occasional nostalgic forays back into film.

Go on, you know you want to!

G

In view of the recent announcement, this would seem to be bad timing. Bet they don't stay on the shelf for long.

G

Lots of people successfully take lenses apart. Not so many put them back together again. I speak from experience.

G

On most cameras you simply open the back, push down on the little spring-loaded pin which forms the top hinge of the back, and Bob's your uncle.

G

Some people rave about DOF preview, and dismiss any camera that doesn't have it.

However, with the lens stopped down to f8 or so, it is usually far too dark (for my eyes, at least) to make out any significant difference in depth of field.

So, I never use it. On digital cameras, the LCD gives a far better indication. I believe DOF preview won't stay around much longer on digital cameras.

G

For Macro, you want maximum sharpness, and you don't generally need AF or even exposure automation.

So, an old M lens is a good buy, and certainly better than a cheap Sigma.

Best focal length is probably 200mm, followed by 100mm and then 50mm. However, 200mm macros are hard to come by, so my advice would be a Pentax-M 1:4 100mm as offering the best quality/price ratio. The "A" version is obviously slightly more convenient.

With macro, you usually want to maximise the very limited depth of field, so good performance at small apertures is usually much more important than having a large max aperture.

Coincidentally, I am selling my A 1:4 100mm (because I also have the FA 1:2.8 100mm), but I would give the same advice even if I wasn't!

The Tamron 90, as Matt said, is also highly regarded.

G

This is a TTL unit, and I believe it SHOULD work fine with the DS. However, many people (though not all) have experienced problems with TTL flash and Pentax DSLRs.

If you haven't yet bought the unit, and don't want to shell out quite a lot of money, then you might find that a non-digital gun such as the AF280T or the AF240Z will give reasonable results for not too much money.

G

Can you do batch conversions from PEF to JPEG in the Gimp (or any other Linux program)?

George

The FA 80-320 is OK, but it is considered by some (I haven't tried it) to be somewhat soft above 200mm, which is a pity because I would guess you will tend to use it almost exclusively at the long end if you're photographing birds.

I know nothing about the Sigma, but if it's a cheap one, don't expect it to be any better. Quite the reverse, in fact.

In your shoes I would keep looking for a prime. You will often want to crop your pics because whichever lens you buy, it will never be long enough. And cropping means you need a sharp lens.

G

We Pentax lovers remain faithful to the brand because the cameras are small, light, and reasonably rugged, and the lenses are second to none (though we concede that Zeiss and Leitz lenses are quite good, too).

In addition to Kim's link, you will find this very useful:

http://www.bdimitrov.de/kmp/

Welcome to the club.

George