Thanks Stefan. I always considered the Tamron as a compromise, with great versatility, which is helpful if I don't care too much about IQ and just want to carry one lens. I also have a few manual lenses - M50 F1.4, Vivitar 24mm f2, Vivitar 135mm F2.8 and a Vivitar 70-210 Series 1 (all three Komine) - which are great fun in situations where they fit my needs.

Would love to have the quik-shift feature but I guess the current £650 package (Kx + the two DAL lenses, before cash back) only comes as that - if you were to combine the DA versions with the body it's easily £150 more than that.

And, ah! ... the DA 50-135... nice one, but outside my budget for now

Wolf

OK, so after the DPR review I am totally bitten by the Kx bug - just the right thing for me coming from the K100D and with low light performance one of my most important criteria. (I had a Samsung GX-20 briefly, which has a lot of nice features, but I tended to notice the noise from ISO400 on...)

So the choice is, body only or the kit w/ 18-55mm and 55-300mm DAL lenses (and the Pentax cash back). I do have the Tamron 18-250mm already, which is a decent walkabout lens, although I can see its limitations - it's a bit soft at the long end, with a tendency to slight blur towards the edges of the frame.

Does anyone know from experience how the two DAL lenses compare to the Tamron, particularly in terms of sharpness and focus speed/precision? Any input would be highly appreciated

Cheers Clarky!

Does anyone know whether the O-ME53 or KPS eyepiece would also fit on a Samsung GX-20? I'd be quite tempted to try it, but it would be nice to know before forking out the money.

Seems to be one of the very first out there:

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/cameras-and-camcorders/cameras/digital-slrs/pen...

Overall very positive, if a bit brief and superficial. The sample images are not that great to judge the camera, but the reviewer did seem to like it.

For those who are interested, Digital Camera resource have posted a K-7 review which appears - to me as an amateur - quite competent:

http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/pentax/k7-review

The one thing I find puzzling though is that he seems to have done all the sample shots with the (new) kit lens, and finds the biggest weakness of the K-7 a slight lack of sharpness. I would think that the SMC DA 18-55 WR, as nice as it may be for a kit lens, isn't really pushing the K-7 capabilities? Anyway, it's quite a very positive test.

On the samples page, he has one inside a church, which I find particularly impressive when you compare it to the same image taken with other cameras in his reviews...

Just found two more interesting offers (yes, I am spending some time today hunting for bargains :wink for two Sigmas:

http://www.plemix.com/acc-sigma-Sigma%20105mm%20F2.8%20EX%20DG-lens
Sigma 105mm F2.8 EX DG Lens @ £286

http://www.plemix.com/acc-sigma-24%2060mm%20F2.8%20EX%20DG-lens
Sigma 24-60mm F2.8 EX DG Lens @ £220

No idea if these are great lenses but the prices seem a bit lower than the average offer out there...

Yeah, like I said, half an hour after posting here I decided to buy one, and after that the offer - which was from an affiliate seller - disappeared and was replaced by Amzon's own stock offer.

The Pentax smc DA 35mm f/2.8 Macro @ £414 is still there - sorry I posted wrong link in my previous post, the correct one is here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pentax-smc-35mm-2-8-Macro/dp/B0015CRAZA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1253973897&sr=1-1

Thanks RR! Fantatic shot btw, really lovely. I did a little bit of reading since posting this thread and then decided to buy it. The seller is an established photo retailer in Germany so that shouldn't be an issue.

It appears that there was limited supply - the £331 offer is now gone and it's listed at £678 shipping directly from Amazon. I'll keep my fingers crossed that I'll actually get it at the price I ordered it at... they might come back and claim it was a mistake

I was just browsing Amazon this morning for 'pentax lens' and came across these two offers which seem to be quite attractive... maybe not great bargains but still a bit of a saver for someone who might want one of these lenses:

Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 APO EX DG Macro II at £331
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sigma-70-200mm-Pentax-Digital-Cameras/dp/B0017UYBXO/ref=sr_1_73?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1253959807&sr=1-73

BTW, does anyone have experience with this Sigma? I feel almost tempted to get one myself...

Pentax smc DA 35mm f/2.8 at just over £400
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sigma-105mm-Pentax-Digital-cameras/dp/B0002P19YE/ref=sr_1_186?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1253960618&sr=1-186