At 69 quid somebody got a bargain.

This is a bargain for what is quite possibly the best lens Pentax have ever made.

I haven't seen many people using this camera at all....

I have it in Canon mount but I only use EOS film cameras as they don't suffer from poor dynamic range like their digital Canon cousins It's certainly enjoyable to use and feel good in the hand.

I haven't seen any scans back from it yet anyway as I got it quite recently, though I did have a brief chance to use it on a friend's digital SLR (100D, ugghhh). The results looked quite sharp but at ISO 3200 they were very noisy due to the poor sensor, so not a great analysis of what the lens can do.

In Spain, as far as I'm aware, it's not illegal to take photos of people in public, if it were then it would be impossible to take any pictures in any city. It is illegal to publish photographs of the faces of minors without their parents' or guardians' consent, but I don't think it's illegal to take such photos.

I've never had any problems at all, though my wife tells me I shouldn't photograph people without asking their permission first, but in a crowded street what can you do?

Hello and welcome to the forum. You've chosen a good place to start looking at DSLRs

Megapixels are certainly not the most important feature of a digital camera. These days I wouldn't worry about it at all as all digital SLR and mirrorless cameras have good resolution. There are far more important factors to take into account.

From your description of what you want, I would say that the K-3 or K-3 mark II would be the best camera from Pentax for your needs. The photo you posted is the new, full-frame K-1, which has a bigger sensor but a price-tag and weight to match. I certainly wouldn't recommend a full frame camera to someone who's just getting interested in photography.

The K-3 is a full-featured and robust camera which is extremely capable and which has superb image quality. The main difference between the original K-3 and the mark II is that the former has an in-built flash while the latter uses the space for a GPS unit instead. You decide but for my money an in-built flash is far, far more useful, so I would track down an original K-3 rather than the mark II. You'll probably be able to get it a bit cheaper too. The robust metal body will make it more likely to last a good length of time and take a few knocks. You won't find any other camera close to the K-3 in price with that level of build quality.

The K-3 has a long, long list of features which stretch well into what is regarded as the professional or very advanced amateur photographer's territory. It's hard to imagine you finding the camera a limiting factor in you photography.

Have a look online at user reviews and magazine reviews and see if you think the camera sounds right for you. Bear in mind that the industry press has (in general) an anti-Pentax stance and will often recommend Canon and Nikon over Pentax simply because the "big two" pay for more advertising space in their pages, so take any such advice from those sources with a pinch of salt. Once you've had a deeper look you may find you have more specific questions you'd like to ask.

Very nice. Perhaps a bit heavy on the contrast in the B&W ones.

I'm sorry to say that neither of those issues are due to the camera. DSLRs tend to underexpose to protect highlights, the idea being that you shoot in RAW and fix later in-camera or on a computer, but exposure compensation is often required when shooting to brighten images up. Cameras which meter from the image sensor will always have more accurate exposure than DSLRs, but it's something you learn to compensate for.

As for reach, well that depends 100% on the lens. Pentax has plenty of telephoto lenses at good prices which perform reasonably well, the 55-300mm ones are probably the best deal.

Aside from that, being away on holiday is never the best time to learn your way around a new camera. If it had been me I'd have made time to take it out for a while before going, just to make sure it works and I understand the basics.

Replacements for the DA* lenses are long, long overdue.

Good luck with the micro 4/3 gear and remember you can adapt those old (or new) Pentax lenses to mirrorless systems very easily. I use mine on a Fujifilm X-M1 which I've had for a year and a half with no Fuji lenses.