Newcomers to digital might find this article interesting and informative - I did

http://www.photo.net/learn/raw/

And, before purchasing Photoshop or similar, give Picasa2 a try - it's an excellent freebie

http://picasa.google.com/index.html

I've found them to be extremely helpful in the past, but I emailed a query to the service dept. about a fortnight ago and I'm still waiting for a response

I agree Kim, that laptop really wasn't designed to run XP pro.
Win98 or possibly 2000 would be better but it must be struggling just to 'tick-over' with XP!

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/upgrading/sysreqs.mspx

As you can see from the link, you're pretty close to the minimum specs., add anti-virus and video applications etc. and it's not hard to see why you're having problems.

TBH, those Microsoft specs. sound a little optimistic to me

The low RAM will play a significant part, if it's not possible to increase it, disable all unnecessary processes and see if that helps.
If you use the laptop on the internet, disconnect and shutdown your anti-virus - esp. if it's Norton (bit of a resource hog!).

Well, the 1.4 is heavier - 7.8oz as opposed to 6oz because it has 7 elements in 6 groups where the 1.7 has 6 in 5 groups and the front element is larger.
Optically, I expect that there's very little in it between the two and the 1.4 is, as the figures show, less than half a stop faster and this difference would rarely be significant unless you regularly shoot in very low light.
Faster lenses are more expensive because they are harder to produce and contain more of the costly optical glass and lenses faster than 1.4 are incredibly expensive and the image quality is often not quite as good.
Really fast lenses are designed for professionals who 'absolutely must get that shot' and can afford to buy them in the first place.

I'm sure you'll be more than happy with your 1.7, it is a very fine lens indeed!

Point taken George, but I'm not so sure that £3,000 is too high for the pro's.

In '97, a mere eight years ago, a 6MP SLR (Kodak EOS DCS1) had a price tag of almost £23,000. I don't suppose they sold many but the camera did exist and a 1.75MP camera cost over £4,000 at that time.

Incredible how things have progressed, isn't it?

Well, I suppose an APS size sensor with 10+ megapixels would satisfy the needs of most pro's and it would be nice to see Pentax DSLRs being used in the media etc.
I think Canon ought to be challenged in this area and perhaps Pentax should produce a full 35mm sized flagship model!

You're most welcome and I'm sure you'll be delighted when you take the plunge!

I've owned a Trust 910Z powercam (digital zoom compact) for nearly two years and think it's terrific - quality Samsung lens, Sony sensor, 5MP effective resolution etc. and can't fault it for the price.
Now with the DL, I can use my K-mount lenses and take a step up to proper slr type photography with no wasted film and total control over the end result - brilliant

I've no experience of the new lenses and have only just acquired an *istDL myself but I suspect that they are very good indeed.
Older A, F and FA lenses have increased in value recently because of their usability on the DSLRs and because the sensor, being smaller than 35mm, gathers the image from the central portion of the lens and therefore doesn't show the poorer quality from the edges that 99% of lenses suffer from.
So, not only are most Pentax lenses very good but the digital slr's get the best possible results from them.

Undoubtedly, Pentax will eventually release a full 35mm size DSLR and assuming that they keep the K-mount format, the 35mm lenses will still be usable but today's digital lenses will be less practical!

Welcome aboard Juno 60.

We've pretty much covered this subject recently and you'll find a number of threads relating to member's experiences.
Your lenses will be perfectly usable but you'll need to bear in mind that the effective focal length is increased by approx 1.5x due to the digital sensor being smaller than the size of a 35mm negative (a 50mm A series lens when used on an *istDS will deliver the same angle of view as a 75mm lens on a 35mm film camera).

The only real compatibility issue you may encounter is with the Sigma but most functions should be ok.

You might prefer the new *istDS2 (a couple of refinements and a better screen) but if you're budget is tight then the original model may be dropping in price or the DL might be more affordable.
All models use the same sensor and deliver equally good results so your decision would be based on price and camera functions and you'll be able to use your existing lenses straight away, whichever camera model you choose!

Oh, and don't forget to buy an SD memory card