Congratulations on taking the plunge into Pentax digital SLR photography.

If the shake reduction system works well with your chosen lenses, you may not need the bean bag.

"Where did I go to learn photography? ", night school, many years ago. I followed a City & Guilds course in photography but never completed it. There is no real substitute for just getting out there and working with your camera. You are very fortunate to not have to learn the chemistry of film photography and spend hours in the darkroom after a days shoot.

With digital, results are instant. If you don't like what you see, take the shot again with a different perspective, lighting, lens, etc. One subject, a building for instance, can provide many photographic opportunities and challenges. Go for It.

I would also include a decent Macro lens, either a prime, or a good zoom having good Macro capability. The Pentax 50 and 100mm Macro Primes are exceptionally good. I use the SMC Pentax-FA 100mm Macro lens because it allows you to stand just a bit further away from the subject than the 50mm. The Sigma 70-300mm APO Macro Super (or the latest variant) is another I can recommend (macro at the 300mm end of the zoom range).

Probably . . .

What's the make of the lens ?

I have two recommendations that you should seriously consider.

1: Buy a grip for your *istD. It transforms it's managability and adds little weight if you don't put batteries in the camera body.
2: Move to southern Spain. I have but more importantly, my wife did 2 years ago and her osteoarthritis is much less painful now than it has been for years in the cold & damp climate of UK. I have osteoarthritis in my spine and although I've been here only 3 weeks this trip, I'm feeling the benefit already.

Option 1 will transform your camera and is relatively inexpensive. Option 2 could transform your life . . . priceless.

George/Spider, has either of you handled a *istD with a grip for any length of time? It feels a whole lot better and is much more manageble. I seldom use the extra shutter release button anyway and I don't keep batteries in the body, only in the grip because of the power management issues that are well documented here. If you haven't tried it, do. Of course if smaller is better for you, don't try the grip.

Using any old type of AA's in the D-BG1 grip is not a problem. The problem comes when you try and fill the grip and the camera with batteries, then try and use the camera. It will fail with a dead battery symbol in a very short time. Turn off, turn on, problem gone away for a while . . . 'til the next time. That's a Pentax design issue, not a battery problem.

If Pentax haven't changed the electronics/software to fix this, the K10D + D-BG2 combo will suffer in exactly the same way with its more expensive battery supply. Won't that p**s a few people off?

Cheers,

I'm of the same opinion Gwyn. I'll not be rushing out to buy/order one just yet. It'll just cost too much to upgrade my 2 x *istD's + grips + batteries.

Given that the K10D is substantially cheaper than its predecessor (*istD) when it was launched at around £600 versus £1200'ish, is it actually such a good deal?

If we are expected to ditch our existing kit, I think Pentax can think again. Just look at what we'll need to replace (camera body excluded).

£179.00 - Battery Grip - D-BG1 is not compatible with the K10D because it uses a
£50 - Bespoke Battery - Why, Why, Why? 4 x 1.5V AA's is ample power for any modern camera. A Battery is not included with D-BG2 grip.
£nnn.nn - CF Cards - The K10D, like all Pentax bodies after the *istD uses SD cards.
£200/300 - Wireless Flash - you'll need to buy another flash to use it.

I've been as excited as most on here at the prospect of having a shiny new K10D to play with. I'm not so sure I will buy one just yet. When I add up the actual cost of replacing my existing kit, the K10D is a very expensive upgrade path. Would we have to do it all again if/when a K1D is released?

The same applies to the AF540FGZ, you'll need two for wireless flash on the *istDS. Only the *istD and probably (hopefully) the K10D can use its built in flash as a wireless flash controller/master.

EDIT:

According to the K10D manual, two AF540/360FGZ flashes are required to utilise the wireless flash features of the K10D