Argh, another want from your collection LennyBloke! This is the SMC version! I was looking for an affordable one a few years ago and the eBay prices were always going beyond what I would pay for (by a mile even).

Argh! Want!

Shaky just dropped the bomb on the amateurs.

I see what you did there...

Nice shot! Would be a nice poster to a jail somewhere, captioned "freedom".

PM sent!

Kindly bumping the thread.

My father had an old Nikon lens he used when he had to travel to Antarctica. That insanely long zoom lens (which I cannot remember what it was) really piqued my interest. First proper camera I got was an Olympus C-740UZ (uzi, anyone remember these?) which was an ultrazoom bridge camera.

I hate to admit it, but I was sold on the Nikon D80 thanks to Ken Rockwell. I then found out why there were things I simply couldn't do on a bridge camera. I wanted to upgrade.

I joined many forums, DPreview, Steves Digicams, Photo.NET, and in my experience talking with the online community of the respective brands:

Canon - I was just pretty much ignored. I felt like I was shouting in a cave and no one really didn't care. All the interactions I did was a waste of time.

Nikon - The brand I was really gunning for. The Nikon community then (I can't say it's the same today, probably is, or not) were real elitists. Seriously. Only an Apple fanboy would beat a Nikon fanboy. Some Nikon fanboys even call themselves part of the "dark side" in reference to Canon L lenses being white. I was mocked, made fun of, and was treated poorly for wanting to be part of the Nikon camp.

Pentax - After the bad experience with Nikon, it was about that time that I saw many reviews praising the K10D. I compared it with the Nikon D80 and just like today, the main drawback was the autofocus speed. The K10D was winning awards left right and center and so I started carefully talking to various Pentax forums. Wow. Totally different. I felt a great push from these Pentaxians to just get a camera and start shooting. I felt welcome.

What sealed the deal? Just like everyone else here: I held the K10D in my hands. There it was. I ended up getting the GX-10! LOL

Ah true, I am welcome to entertain offers of course. Considering your advice, I am willing to go down as follows:

Pentax 50 1.7 M - £30 incl RMSD
Tamron 70 300 - £75 incl RMSD
Tamron 28 300 - £160 incl RMSD

Hope this entices some people.

Thank you for the comment. It looks like I might lose a gem here. No one seems to be interested, and there are several other people selling the 55-300 here so I might end up keeping it!

#2 is top notch, but they're all beautiful photos! thanks for sharing!