My first SLR was an MZ-7 with 28-80 and 80-320 which my family bought me as an 18th birthday present.

I asked for an SLR, and Dad bought me the MZ-7 because he already had a reasonable selection of K mount lenses which I would be able to borrow and use with my MZ-7.

Since then I have always remained faithful to the K mount.

If I were starting out right now with no equipment I believe I would still pick Pentax. The design philosophy suits me nicely. The bodies are as small as possible, and no smaller, I love the backward lens compatibility. The fact that Pentax engineers always seem to go out of their way to make the bodies and lenses as compatible as possible, to the point of insanity in some cases. You can even mount a DA lens on a K1000, the image circle is too small, there's no aperture ring, but the metering will still couple correctly and the combination will function at F22. There is no logical reason to have made that possible.

I have limited experience of other brands, but from what I've seen Sony DSLRs look plastic although they perform well, while low end Canon DSLRs feel plastic and toy-like with lens performance to match. I've never used an Oly, although I suspect strongly that the 2x crop will make the viewfinder unacceptably small. I looked through a Nikon D50 once and my main recollection of it was that the VF was diabolical.

sounds very good!

alternatively snap up Malos K10D+18-55+50-200 for £365+fees+P&P and save the remaining cash towards a wide angle zoom or whatever other accessories it turns out you want

I'm not sure what the prices are in the states, but the short answer is no.

The cheapest lens available which goes a bit wider than the 18-55 is the 16-45 at (UK prices) ~£230. 2mm in that range is more than it sounds, but while I love my 16-45 as a standard lens I wouldn't buy it if what I wanted was a dedicated wide angle.

The cheapest true wide angle zoom is the Tamron 10-24 at £359 and then the Sigma 10-20 (non-HSM) at £389. These prices are all from SRS Microsystems, usually reliable to be among the cheapest of the reputable suppliers. I haven't checked so you may be able to do better but these prices are to give you an idea.

Park Cameras have the Samsung badged 50-200 (it's the same lens, Samsung market Pentax gear under their own badge) at £129.99, perhaps you would be as well to see how you get on with the K-x+18-55 combination and then decide what additional lens to buy later.

If what you really want is a wide angle it seems silly to spend money on a short tele

I don't know, I find the A setting on my Zeiss Flektogon quite useful

(for the new arrivals: the Zeiss Flek is a rather old but fine lens made by Zeiss Jena in M42 mount. It can be used on Pentax DSLRs via an adaptor. It's Auto/Manual switch is rather different from the A setting described above. Understanding of such things is not essential for new starters and I would recommend you grasp the modern stuff before delving into the delightful but confusing world of old glass on a new camera)

and when you want really fast JPGs and don't mind ** quality dcraws -e option is your friend. It pulls the preview JPG (a full size ** quality JPG, at least on K10D files) out of the RAW and saves it as a .jpg.

Instant RAW+JPG.

The older Pentax lenses have a ring at the lens mount end which controls the size of the lens aperture (the bit which lets the light in). Lenses from the late 80s to early 2000s have this ring, but are designed to also work with cameras which can control the aperture automatically. These lenses feature a setting on their aperture ring marked "A" for automatic.

A few of the late film cameras and all of the DSLRs to date from Pentax have what is commonly called the "crippled" KAF2 mount. This version of Pentax's K mount can physically accept any K mount lens, but does not allow the camera to sense the setting of the old style aperture rings. These cameras only work fully with lenses which have an A setting on the aperture ring, or no aperture ring at all.

I tried joining that club once, but I got kicked out

From what you said in your original post about wanting to get closer to interesting stonework on buildings, I don't think you're going to be satisfied with just the 18-55.

If it's camera shake you're worried about, don't forget you have two major advantages with the K-X body

1. Pentax SR is really quite effective.

2. The K-x has fantastic high ISO capabilities.

You will be able to wind up the sensitivity to allow high shutter speeds, with the added benefit of SR to make double sure.

If its weight which bothers you, seriously consider the 50-200. It's a good lens, especially for the money, and it weighs little if any more than the 18-55.

good find RR, I like that one better because you can select 35mm or APS-C digital (for the uninitiated, Pentax and most other DSLRs use an APS-C size sensor which is what causes all the confusion regarding effective focal lengths and 35mm equivalence)

if you look at the clock one you can see where they had to give switch actual photographs halfway through the range. The time changes.