Wow Smeggypants, if I were to say that I'm jealous of your gear, it would be greatly understated. That's a hell of a collection. How do you find the Pentax A lenses, particularly the 50mm f/1.2, in terms of sharpness and overall rendering?

@ Miles, thanks again for the additional info. Sounds good for sure!

I think that may be opening another can of worms. Lets say for the sake of brevity that the composition is good and we are merely talking about those final touches and how to obtain the best final result for your efforts. As far as photoshop for monochromatic, I personally think it does a very good job as long as you know what you're doing. There may be programs better suited for b&w but photoshop can easily get your conversion to where you want it to be, especially with some of the great, new conversion plug-ins now available.

Wow, I just checked out their website and the price difference between the express and pro model is only $50. For some reason, I thought it was a lot more than that. Hmm, decisions, decisions.

@ Miles, that's a damn fine monitor. I personally went from a 14 inch crt (ouch...painful) to a 22 inch Philips led (the smallest full hd I could find) and it was literally like night and day. I even went back and looked at some of my images that I had processed while using the crt and, suffice to say, they didn't look so hot and were mostly oversharpened as I was unable to see much of the fine detail on my old screen. The Spyder will be my next investment, been meaning to get one for a while now but they are hard to find in my neck of the woods. How easy was it to set up? Do you think it's worth it to go with the pro model or is the express enough for you in general? The custom printer profiles might be really nice but I don't know if the extra features justify the added cost at this point.

Oh, I forgot to mention something that hasn't been addressed yet in this thread. What kind of monitor are you using? Is it calibrated? I recently upgraded from a crt to a much larger full hd led and the difference is astounding. If you haven't done so yet, I highly recommend purchasing a high resolution screen before upgrading lenses. Trust me, your post processing will take on a whole new level of precision. Plus, the prices have come down significantly.

I have to agree with many of the comments already posted. I get some amazing photos just using the kit lens and polish them up with a little post-processing (usually no more than 5 minutes of work). Photoshop, Lightroom, etc. will not make a bad image good or a blurry image sharp but can easily make a good image great. I don't consider it cheating at all since it's accessible to all and even the pros post-process. Plus, it's all about showing your personal perspective of reality and what emotions you want to invoke in those looking at your images. If you want to upgrade lenses, just go back and look at the photos you've already taken and find the common links between them (strengths vs weaknesses). This can help you decide what focal length and aperture you need or use the most depending upon your particular style. For me, it's part technique and part post-processing, the equipment (like the lens for example) is rarely ever a limitation unless you're big into very small depths of field. In that case, you need to upgrade to a prime.