Useful information there Matt, thanks for the tip

I'll 'third' the camera strap idea.
A good quality one with Pentax User emblazoned across it would be nice

If you are about to go ahead I would suggest you give Chris a call at SRS and discuss 'all' aspects of your proposed purchase

Yes it was pretty much overcast when these were taken (Caversham shots).

Here are a few others with sunnier lighting. These were taken last month while on holiday in Provence. Although I mostly used the 16-50 or FA50 walking around Bargemon I had the 18-55 fitted.

[IMG]http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/4729/imgp2974.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/4469/imgp2972a.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/7999/imgp2968p.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/5732/imgp2961.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/7830/imgp2957f.jpg[/IMG]

These were taken yesterday with my K-7 and WR 18-55 fitted. A quick 3 miler around the Caversham / Thames area. Travelling 'light' hence the WR lens

[IMG]http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/8173/imgp3130.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/6446/imgp3132w.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/1300/imgp3134i.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/5420/imgp3140.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/397/imgp3141.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/9551/imgp3149d.jpg[/IMG]

It's not a bad little zoom, a bit soft at the edges at 18 mm dependant on aperture. At the long end it also benefits from a bit of stopping down. Certainly great value for money

By the way the Heron was taken at 55mm f11 and cropped quite a bit. All the rest were at the wide end.

Hi Earl, welcome to the forum

That will pretty much always be the case, very occasionally development seems to move forward only to take a slightly backwards step.
I understand this may have been the case with the 40D to 50D. I have to admit that the 7D looks a nice camera but for me it immediately falls down on environmental sealing in comparison to the K-7.

The Pentax because it works fine for me

If I was starting from a blank canvas..... it would be difficult to decide but I think I'd probably still tip in the direction of Pentax

Now with the benefit of hindsight....
Feature wise it's great, handling and operation are spot on for me (with or without the grip). The K-7 Image quality is excellent IMO. Weather and dust sealing is high on my agenda and the K-7 with DA* lenses put one healthy big tick in that box
Pricing is now much better than when it was first released.... and I prefer not to follow the masses (though not saying that there anything necessarily wrong providing the products warrant it).
All in all I'm very very happy with my K-7

Thanks for the tip Dave