Value for money has to go to the K20D.

You could look at it another way and take advantage of the K20D's imminent end of production as a bonus because it'll drop in price even more I feel before it becomes unavailable.

Chances are when a K20D replacement is announced you'll decide it's too expensive and wait for the price to come down. Then you'll find that one will be due for replacement and wait some more, and so it goes.

Go for the K20D now and enjoy it, that's my recommendation.

EDIT: If you live within easy reach of Watford, visit www.srsmicrosystems.com and try them both out. Be warned though, it's an photographer's Aladins cave and I doubt you'll be able to walk out of there without spending some money.

OK thanks. No PM rcvd yet.

Now there's a challenge, and where are all our shield bugs . . . in hiding coz it's too hot. I haven't seen any for some time, but if I do . . .

So you haven't got room far a Sigma 180mm Macro anyway then.

There is another thread running on here along similar lines. If a lens has no aperture ring, clearly aperture can't be set on the lens itself. Therefore aperture must be set on the body. AFAIK only the MZ-6 and *ist 35mm film bodies can do this, but there could be others.

Any K mount lens will work on any K mount body but aperture ring-less lenses fitted to bodies having no aperture control will use the lens wide open and vignetting may occur.

I suppose what I should have written was " . . . only two Pentax 35mm film bodies that can fully utilize lenses with no aperture ring . . ."

Of course a K mount lens will fit any K mount body and you'll get some kinf of an exposure, but the aperture will be wide open.

Craig, some of us have spent a long time helping you with this issue, why be so economical with information now?

If you've had a problem and got it successfully resolved, could you give something back to the forum and explain more fully please?

How on earth do you manage to cram that lot in Mike? I guess some of it is in the top section.

BTW: The DA 12-24mm isn't a * lens. I think you got a bit carried away there, or was it wishful thinking?

Care to enlighten us?

If I had half an idea to start a 'proper' camera shop, I'd soon reconsider.

Apart from a few exceptions (like SRS) a shop is a showroom where people can try various cameras and decide which suits them best from a handling point of view etc.

Then what do they do, buy from the internet, mail order.

Unless you can shift enough boxes at a price that is almost as competitive (read cheap) as some online sources, you'd be on a hiding to nothing.

SRS have got it just about right. Good quality pre-sales and after-sales service keeps customers coming back but you still have to pay the rent on the premises and wages etc.