Yes - the 75-150 would actually be great... f4 at that focal length probably gives narrow enough DOF on 35mm format (film). It's a good lens on digital too, especially as the f4 setting is very usable so you can shoot it wide open in Av mode (and not worry about all that green button malarkey).

50mm is a bit on the short side but still worth considering.... even a bargain basement f2 one will give a lovely soft background, but you also have the faster f1.7 and f1.4 versions to pick from reasonably cheaply.

But the improvement from K7-K5 has very little to do with the extra bits. It's more to do with the new sensor design. The K30 has 12 bits, but is hard to differentiate from the K5 in DR terms. The difference is a lot more subtle than even the difference between the K5 and K5iis.

Although you're talking a difference in terms of detail, not DR. But its something I can see with my eyes, whereas when they compare the DR of the K30 through extreme exposure recovery, I can hardly see any difference.

Bit depth does not automatically translate into DR, but people use the terms as if they're interchangeable. For instance the Kx easily beat the K7s DR. Both 12 bit. And the K30 has very similar DR to the K5, at equal ISO. 12 vs 14 bit. I think the difference between 12 and 14 bit is overplayed. It seems to make less impact on overall iq than removing the AA filter did on the K5iis, for example.

Wonderful in black and white, and in colour too! I really am phobic about colour popping though, unless there's a very good reason for it.

Interesting to compare the PP with the original version. Surprised to see no comments on the version uploaded to the Gallery too!

Minolta 4000AF are another good cheaper option, if a bit bulkier and less well featured than the Yongnuos, they go from 1/16, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2 and full power settings and are quite powerful. They can be had for 10 to 20 quid from Ebay. They are OK to use on the hotshoe, and very good for use with off camera radio triggers, which I have been playing with recently.

Simple off-camera radio triggers can be bought for under 20 quid from Ebay, and are pretty well suited to simple manual flashes like the Minoltas and newer Yongnuos.

Hmmm. The theoretical benefit isn't necessarily 'visible' in the print, but the print may have ony been possible with the additional latitude of a RAW file as a starting point for PP.

If you 'get everything right' in camera that is great and you may as well shoot jpeg for the tiny difference in quality (only visible at 1:1 in any case so why bother!) But some scenes are unavoidably tricky, for example extreme ranges of exposure in the one shot. If you don't have a flash for fill light, and HDR isn't possible or desirable, RAW might be a good idea in those situations.

Beautiful couple of shots Mark. The only way you could top the second one would be to have them moonwalking....

Love that first shot, Gábor - the composition is very eyecatching.