I counsel patience, as I believe that the Pentax lenses will be significantly better.

I think the last suggested retail price for the 80-200mm f2.8 was something in the region of £2000. It is reputed to be a beautiful lens of the very highest standard.

The K10D might be priced in D80 territory, but its spec is definitely far superior to that. It looks like a very aggressive bit of marketing is about to happen, so the opportunity will be there for very very good value for our money.

Pentax viewfinders are so much better than the Nikon ones and the design is so much more elegant I personally wouldn't look at buying a Nikon, although there is nothing wrong with Nikon quality.

Might be nice for early morning mist or for soft focus landscapes. I have never really used a diffuser much, and now I would probably use Photoshop instead. But for transparency film there will still be a place for diffusing some images.

Very droll, Mr L.....

Diffusers with centre clear spots do exist, but you have an overall diffuser that could be used for all sorts of subjects, not just portraits.

IMHO, Pentax lenses are better made, balance and operate more smoothly with the cameras and generally have superior performance. But do compare like with like, because they do make lower cost lenses too, although these also compare well with the opposition.

There are new fixed aperture lenses on the horizon, and the Limited series are second to none.

My vote is stick with Pentax.

I don't know about that - someone might - but as a general principle I avoid any processing in camera.

Except, that is, for favouring the use of JPEG which involves some processing of its own.

Some methods of rotation actually resample fairly badly, so I tend to rotate only as needed in Photoshop.

Many lenses are now provided with dedicated hoods, so there is no excuse for not using them!

Previously I always bought the dedicated hood, which could add £30 or more to the cost of every lens.

So, life has improved!

I think I saw the camel when I was on holiday and looked over the water towards Jura....

Yes.

Any of the AF lenses that have a single focal length only, that is, are not zooms, are called primes. Small ones could be anything in the standard or wide angle ranges, but telephotos might be quite bulky. Obviously it depends on how you define small, but Pentax lenses in general do tend to be quite compact compared to other marques.

Don't forget the new DA series digital-only lens range which has quite a few prime lenses that are very compact indeed. As the DA lenses are designed to cover the area of the CCD only they can be made much smaller than would otherwise be the case.