And 55-200 has become the 'classic focal length' for a second kit lens on ASP-C. No surprise people upgrading from kit lenses look for something with a similar range. The Sigma and Tamron 70-200s F/2.8s are popular for a reason too and the fact that the 60-250 is an F/4 does make a difference.

Back in the days when 70-200 was a classic focal length on 35mm film you also could not walk into practically any high street store and purchase a compact camera with a 7x to 12x zoom range for less than £250.00. You certainly can now, and people upgrading to DSLRs are looking for these cameras to outperform their compacts in every respect (except ovbiously price and size).

I voted yes, but more on general principles because I would like to see more lenses than because cheap primes are something I would purchase. I'm sure the DA 35mm F/2.4 is a very nice lens, but in reality I'd rather save up for an extra couple of months and get a DA 35mm F/2.8 macro - the macro capability is just going to be a lot more useful to me than an extra 1/2 stop.

Going by what I've read in forums, heard from other photographers (I'm a member of a couple of local photography groups), and heard in camera stores on a couple of occaions, a disproportionate number of people seem to be put off from buying into the Pentax system by the perception that the range of lenses is quite limited. The extent to which this is true has been blown out of all proportion, of course, but it is still an issue that Ricoh/Pentax need to address.

If Ricoh can afford to invest some money into the system (dubious at the moment I know) then it might be an idea to prove the naysayers wrong and start filling in the gaps in the existing lens range - not just with some cheap primes but also the long/fast zooms and cheap superzooms so many crave also. The cheap superzooms will still have crappy image quality but if that is really what people want to stick on their expensive DSLRs (and enough people seem to) who am I to say they're wrong?

And yes, a 70-200 f/2.8 would be nice - people do actually want the field of view this will given them on ASP/C so the 55-135 isn't a substitute. Evidently Sigma and Tamron can make a profit selling their versions in K-mount so it seems likely that Pentax could, too.

If they can turn around the camera salesmen in the high street stores from saying "you get more choice of lenses with Canon and Nikon" to "Pentax have a great range of lenses - one of the best" then the bottom line is more people will buy into Pentax, especially if they can keep the standard of camera bodies as high as that set by the K-5 and K-r.

Thanks for the comments! I'm really pleased for my image to have been so well received. By 'not a serious entry' I didn't mean to minimise it, I just meant I came to the competition late and didn't have time to take a variety of shots and choose between them as I would normally do. With the theme in mind I saw this opportunity when I literally had 2 minutes to spare and just took the shot.

I was also surprised there were so few entries.

Did I post my entry in too late? I was just going by the original post to this thread which said the 18th (Thursday).

Inside the Outside

[IMG]http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb411/msitaylor/InsidetheOutsideBW.jpg[/IMG]

Sigma 8-16mm @ 8mm. Not really a 'serious' entry just a quick snapshot taken in the car park at work this afternoon, but thought I'd put it in anyway since there are so few entries for this theme!

Interesting, but I'd be even more interested to see what they had to say about the IQ.

I have two 16GB cards for use in my K-5 and one 8GB card in my Samsung compact (one is more than enough as it doesn't do RAW).

My choice of 16GB cards for the K-5 was purely down to the fact that when I got them they were the best value (for a fast card/reliable brand) in terms of capacity per penny spent. In other words 8GB cards were more than half the price and 32GB cards were more than twice the price. I would not buy a 32GB card unless they came down to less than twice the price of a 16GB. Yes, I am Scottish.

Excellent lens, shots here.

When you look at shots from this (or most of the other options above too) next to the kit lens, you'll probably want to upgrade the kit lens!

The only lens I keep a filter on is my DA 55-300, and that is literally just to keep the dust off it! I posted a thread a few months ago when I first got the lens about how the front element attracts dust like a magnet. Everybody seemed to think that was a bit strange at the time. Well, strange as it may seem, it still does it. None of my other lenses attract even a fraction of the amount of dust. I got fed up of cleaning it every five minutes so I put a filter on the front. The filter does not attract dust (at least no more than any other lens or filter). I have not noticed any difference in image quality. As far as I'm concerned, problem solved.

I don't see the need for a filter on the front of any of my other lenses. I use lens hoods on all (including the 55-300).

Thanks for the comments and advice. Good tip about looking for different angles (Smeggy) - there was so much to snap away at that I got carried away and didn't think about all the different angles I could use! Also will take on board feedback about PP for no. 13 (Pentaxophile and Smeggy) and use of fill flash (K10D). Just now I only have the built-in flash but I'm looking to get a decent flash unit some time next year.

Found this, courtesy of Google: http://www.hoganstand.com/common/ads/down/john37/john37.htm

I don't know if the man in the photo was 'Frank Hogan' as he was not the only one there with this sign. I saw (and photographed) three or four others.

I took (I think) a good shot of three people with the banners taking to some passing nuns, but it needs a little PP work before posting as the nuns' hoods are a bit overexposed. I think it's well within recoverable limits with a bit of tweaking though - I just haven't had time yet.