interesting idea but RR has a point, it's going to be pricey!

And just imagine, you go down to SRS this year and buy yourself a lovely new camera system with 14 megapixel sensors behind every lens.

Next year there is a new version with 20MP sensors which do ISO 12800 with no decernable noise, and you have to buy every single lens again.

On the other hand this is more like a rangefinder than it is like an SLR, and Ricoh seem to be gunning for the Leica end of the market.

My Dad once joined a black powder pistol club. Everyone there was using Le Plage and similar duelling pistols, highly acurate small callibre weapons.

Dad produced his own gun, a Perdesoli "Bounty Hunter" horse pistol in .45 calibre and having a barrel ~18 inches long, to general laughter.

He entered the competition they were holding anyway and it so happened that the range over which this was to be shot was outdoors. It also so happened that it was blowing a small gale such that the oh so dainty duelling pistols with their small charges of powder couldn't hit a darned thing. The Bounty Hunter on the other hand, taking a charge to make field guns weep and with its unreasonably long barrel simply continued to shoot as normal.

Dad won the competition, but never bothered to go back to that club.


The moral of this story is: never laugh at the tools until you've seen what the craftsman can do with them.

thanks Alfie

Something which it's just occured to me the OP may not have grasped:

the numbers in lens names, eg 18-55, 55-300, are focal length ranges.

An 18-55mm zoom has the ability to change its focal length from 18mm to 55mm and anywhere in between.

you will also see some lenses with just one number, for example the famous 50mm prime. A prime lens is one which is not able to zoom. Primes have fewer compromises in their design, which means they are generally very very good, although obviously limited to one magnification. With a couple of notable exceptions they also tend to be expensive since they are niche items these days.

A number of my friends who are used to P&S's have asked me questions like "how many x zoom does your SLR lens have?" when what they are trying to get at is how long is it. They are initially very confused by my largest most impressive lens, a 300mm F2.8 monster, since it is a prime and has no zoom at all.

the "Xx zoom" quoted for compacts is a very misleading figure, since all it gives you is the ratio between longest and shortest available focal lengths. Even among compacts of similar specs, the actual focal lengths involved can vary significantly. On an SLR......well I own two lenses which I could legitamately call "3x" if the mood took me, but I doubt anyone would try to argue that the DA 18-55 and F 70-210 give the same results!

I think you'll find I'M the only Pentax user in this village!


I've never been in a camera club, but I've had a few friends who I've gone out taking pictures with over the years. There have been Canons, Pentaxes, Sonys, Nikons. Our respective brand choices have been a source of ammo for friendly banter and nothing more.

TBH anyone who cares what badge is on your pentaprism housing more than they care how good your photos are isn't worth taking the slightest notice of.

what is wide angle, well here we go

camera lenses fall into 3 broad catagories

wide angle
standard or normal
telephoto

a Standard or Normal lens sees the world with a similar perspective to your eye. This is generally considered to be about 35mm on a Pentax SLR.

wide angle is, as the name suggests, anything wider than this. A wide angle lens lets you get more into the frame and can also give some interesting perspective stretching effects to emphasise an object in the foreground by making it appear unusually large.

Telephoto is conversely anything longer than standard. Great for making far off things look closer, and short telephotos are usually prefered for portraits since they allow a comfortable working distance and generally give a flattering image.

Both have their uses, and most photographers find they prefer one or the other, deppending on what type of images you like capturing.

As you will probably have observed, the 18-55 already gives you some wide angle capability, and goes somewhat wider than the lens on your compact (on a the angle of view provided by your compact would be given by a ~25-75mm lens on a DSLR).

If you already have an idea of what you want to photograph from your P&S experiance, then the question you need to ask yourself is simple:

"which end stop do I keep hitting?"

If you always find yourself wanting to zoom in more when there is no more zoom to be had, you need a telephoto. If you always want to zoom out to get more into the frame then perhaps you are more of a wide angle person.

I have a DA16-45 and that gives me all the wide angle I want, but some people on this board would die before they would be separated from their ~10-20mm super-wide angle zooms.

All cameras have a lens (obvious statement I know, please no mumbling about pinholes people). The major difference with a system camera like an SLR is that you can remove the lens and fit a different one to suit the kind of photography you're doing at the time.

The standard zoom which comes with the K-x is an 18-55mm lens. This is the focal length of the lens, the exact meaning of focal length is not important, the important thing is that longer focal lengths give more magnification.

Your P&S will have had a lens in the region of 5-15mm (3x zoom), which because of its smaller sensor will give a similar range of views to the 18-55. You don't say which P&S you have, but in all probability its lens will be effectively a little longer than the 18-55.

You will hear people talking about "crop factors" and 35mm equivalent. Ignore them. You have never looked through a 35mm SLR, so these will just confuse you.


Now lets say you are out taking photos and you spot a wild animal one hundred meters away. With your point and shoot the best the 3x zoom can do is simply not enough and theres nothing you can do about it except enlarge the image digitally (which will result in a very poor image) or try and get closer (which may spook the animal).

Now assume you're carrying your new DSLR in the same situation. The 18-55mm lens wont get you close enough either, but in your bag you have either the 50-200 or the 55-300. All you have to do is draw forth your telephoto lens and attach it to the camera, et voila. The 50-200 will get you nearly 4x closer than the 18-55, at least 3x better than the maximum zoom on your P&S. The 55-300 is heavier and bigger but even longer, giving you more like 5 times the reach of your P&S.

Because every lens you buy for an SLR is a specialist piece of glass optimised for one task, these lenses excel at their speciallist task. The fixed lens on a P&S must be jack of all trades, master of none.

to sum up

18-55:
similar angle of view to your point and shoot, probably a touch wider. Great for shots of wide rolling vistas, tall buildings, indoor shots and the like.

50-200:
very compact medium telephoto. Gives the same angle of view most of us had on film SLRs while being much more compact and lighter. Quality reports are variable but as long as you get a good one it's very good. I carry mine as part of my "traveling light" twin lens kit.

55-300:
Unless you've got big bucks to spend and a pack mule to carry your gear, this is the Daddy. The 55-300 is unquestionably the best telephoto lens in Pentax mount for under £500. It is bigger and heavier than the 50-200, but still fairly compact and lightweight for a 300mm.

Given your elbow injury, I would try and get to try them out, the 55-300 is the better lens but will take no photos in a cupboard.

anyone who complains about Pentax kit zooms has never seen or attempted to use a Canon one, unless Canon have upped their game significantly in recent times.

If the other manufacturers have upped their game such that Pentax kit zooms are now "average", that can only be a good thing for photographers in general. Good glass for everyone!

since the Km has the K10D sensor and not the K20D one, you may be able to turn this off in a menu option. You can turn it off on the K10D, but not on the K20.

Be prepared for more noise in long exposures though

if it's this one you mean

https://secure.ffordes.com/index.htm

then it's a Tak Bayonette

No SMC coating, flares like a naughty person. Still not a bad lens, it's fast and well made with 8 aperture blades, just the coating isn't up to much.

the 80-320 in particular should make a nice long zoom, at least to be going along with.

for an example of what the 80-320 is capable of on a DSLR, see
https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/topic/pigeon-posing-in-front-of-80-320mm-15910