It sounds fine to me.

I understand the new asking price is £75.00

I've bumped this up to the top rather than you starting a new thread.

There are huge differences in quality. Many polarisers are not neutral and will have various colour casts. The very best ones will be very highly priced. Having said that, Hoya should be OK.

You only need the polariser when you have a shot that will benefit. You will lose maybe 2.5 stops of light, so don't leave it on the camera all the time.

Full flower portraits can be achieved with the SMC Pentax-DA 55-300mm lens, which I find ideal for the purpose. At 300mm we can stand back and the background blurs beautifully. We can also isolate single flowers at the back of larger herbaceous borders. Any longer lens will also be fine, provided the close focusing is reasonable.

The Sigma 28-135mm should work fine, but better if it has an "A" on the aperture ring. Then the full range of exposure modes will be available and the lens will stop down without having to do it manually.

Don't forget the crop factor. The 50mm lens will be a short telephoto (35mm equiv 75mm) so the standard lens for the DSLR will be the 35mm. Both these lenses are inexpensive and excellent.

The DA-L versions are basically the same lens, but with three cost cutting measures: plastic mount instead of metal, no QuickShift and no lens hood supplied. The optics are believed to be identical.

The WR is something new and if it's labelled WR, I'd believe that it's a WR version. The only difference in WR is that the DA* lenses have a more complex WR design that gives better sealing.

This always the dilemma with digital cameras. the outgoing model at a knock down price or the new one at a higher price?

The K-5 (which Sue and I still use) is still a fine camera, and more sturdy probably than the K-50. However, the K-50 may have snappier AF being a newer generation.

The answer to your question is a "how long is a piece of string" situation. Whichever one you buy will be fine. The only caveat is that the used one needs to be carefully checked over whereas the new one will have a full guarantee. Buy from a pro dealer and get 2 years cover.

As you are a new user I'm tempted to say buy a new camera and then you'll be quite sure what you are starting with will be OK and won't have unknown issues that will hinder your learning curve.

Absolutely right CMW, but it does mean something to many people, so a coup in that respect and some positive publicity. It's the right result whether rigged, influenced or not.

So let's feel positive about coming out on top.

I think it's a shame that a thread that is titled DPR Best DSLR of the year vote doesn't have much pleasure in the result, but instead lots of dissatisfaction.

This is a quote from the article that Matt linked to. It is presented as a fact, but it seems just a very miserable world-view to me. It totally ignores the possibility that the future may exceed all our expectations...

The other extreme is Professor Panglov's point of view "It is the best possible result in the best of all possible worlds" or something like that. See Voltaire for details.

In any event our cameras and lenses have survived many downpours and, as Matt says, the light in the rain is superb.