The first question I would have is are you going to go Digital?

Perhaps eBay, but also check out Pentax User. The club office can send you a list of accessories for sale with a discount for members.

It's a huge jump to go from no photographic knowledge to this sort of photography, quite remarkable! Good luck with that.

Some good advice given so far, but I think you also would need a few books on technique and then lots and lots of practice. If you are paying models this could be a very expensive exercise. If you can get friends to model for you, fantastic.

No personal attack, just an exploration of irony.

Wobble on DA zooms? Not on mine....

That's a very interesting observation, but by its own definition cannot be an objective assessment as you have based it on the "prejudices of personal experience"

If this were to be correct then there could be no objective and logical observation about anything. In fact, it may be partly true because even the best scientists can experiment and find what they want to find, regardless of the facts.

But lets go back a step. Why do I recommend Pentax? Because I have used almost every make of camera in existence, from early 1900s folders through all the TLRs, rangefinders and SLRs and then on to DSLRs and my conclusion has been that the one that gave me the best results and best ergonomics was Pentax. So now I use Pentax and recommend it to others.

I don't think this is prejudice, I don't care what the name is on the front of my camera, but I have examined the field and reached a conclusion.

People just say what they believe, and all points of view can be aired, so your thoughts are as valid as anyone else's.

Good point, George.

Don't forget that Pentax make a range of very high quality optics that work seamlessly with the K10D.

SMC Pentax-DA 12-24mm f4 and
SMC Pentax-DA 100mm f2.8 Macro

might suit you very well.

I suppose that if you don't know why the K10D is better, then in one sense you don't need it.

It's a higher level camera with more resolution, better build quality and features likely to appeal to advanced amateurs and professionals.

Having said that, if i had to use a K100D then I would quite happily get along with it. I would miss the 10.2MP resolution and the proper pentaprism finder though!