K20D, am I making the right move getting it?

[Karn]

Points taken, and thanks for trying to help me in making the right decision.

I'll give the 16-45 some serious consideration. Since I really like nature/landscapes, but supposed to be worse at portraits.

Any tips on a good portrait lens? Maybe the 50mm f1.4 would serve me quite well for a low price?

[audiobomber]

Originally Posted by Karn

Any tips on a good portrait lens? Maybe the 50mm f1.4 would serve me quite well for a low price?

Absolutely, 75mm equivalent is a classic 35mm portrait length. The 50mm F/1.4 has great bokeh, sharp, beautiful colours and the wider apertures let you get away without using flash.

[Venturi]

Originally Posted by Karn

Points taken, and thanks for trying to help me in making the right decision.

I'll give the 16-45 some serious consideration. Since I really like nature/landscapes, but supposed to be worse at portraits.

Any tips on a good portrait lens? Maybe the 50mm f1.4 would serve me quite well for a low price?

Hey again Karn. After following this thread and watching you struggle with the decision I say just go ahead and get the camera w/ the kit and pick up the FA50 1.4 too. And start taking pictures!

Give the kit and the 50 a few weeks or so for you to get yourself wrapped around the whole DSLR thing and go from there. As you said you don't yet have a real idea of the difference between 40mm and 70mm; so get a camera in your hands and start finding things out. While you're at it go ahead and get a modest yet quality tripod with some of that "extra" money. You will never regret having a tripod, any tripod, but glass bought too soon with too little knowledge of yourself is a different story all together.

So for now, forget the 16-45 or the 16-50 or super zooms ad nauseum. Go get the dang camera and start shooting pictures.

[Karn]

Pentax k20d and the 16-45 is on it's way to me together with a uv-filter, bag, 4 gig memory card, tripod and the pentax adapter.

A 50mm f1.4 will get ordered in the nearest days.

Was close on ordering a 40d in the end, but eventually I got my sanity back. Close call! I think the k20d will be an excellent first camera

[audiobomber]

Originally Posted by Karn

Pentax k20d and the 16-45 is on it's way to me together with a uv-filter, bag, 4 gig memory card, tripod and the pentax adapter.

A 50mm f1.4 will get ordered in the nearest days.

Was close on ordering a 40d in the end, but eventually I got my sanity back. Close call! I think the k20d will be an excellent first camera

Congratulations. I look forward to seeing some samples.

[Venturi]

Awesome, and good choice. You pretty much could have chosen *any* of the suggested lenses and I'd have agreed with your choice.

[OPTMEKX&]

Congrats Karn, you made the right move, mind you the 16-45 is an excellent one, it is my walk about lens, seldom I change unless my subject dictates it.

Cheers,

Rene

[roverlr3]

I picked up the 16-45mm (won out over the DA*16-50mm because of price and Q.C. issues) and IMO think it is a much better lens than the 18-55 that came with my K10D. I also own the 50-135mm and love how that lens comes thru. One of these two lenses is on my camera about 90% of the time.

[Karn]

Got a mail today saying I could come pick the camera up, like a kid at christmas I rushed away in my car, only to find out that the mail I got actually said I could pick the package up on FRIDAY. The agony!

[Karn]

Got the K20d now, standing mounted on its tripod waiting for the battery to fully charge.

Got:
Pentax k20d + SMC-DA 16-45/4 ED AL
Sandisk SDHC 4gb extreme III
Bag to carry it in
UV-filter
Manfrotto Modo 785b(tripod)
Pentax K-adapter for M42 (Just waiting for the LBA to set in)
Some cleaning stuff

I'm a very happy k20d owner right now

[TomInJax]

Originally Posted by Karn

Got the K20d now, standing mounted on its tripod waiting for the battery to fully charge.

Got:
Pentax k20d + SMC-DA 16-45/4 ED AL
Sandisk SDHC 4gb extreme III
Bag to carry it in
UV-filter
Manfrotto Modo 785b(tripod)
Pentax K-adapter for M42 (Just waiting for the LBA to set in)
Some cleaning stuff

I'm a very happy k20d owner right now

Congrats Karn. You made a great choice in lenses by getting the 16-45mm. I agree that the zoom range is short, but the fixed aperture and great image quality greatly out weigh that. The 16-45 spends most of its time on my camera. It is a great general purpose lens. For most situations, you won't need a super wide angle lens (12-24mm, 10-20mm, or 10-17mm) with the coverage that the wide end of the 16-45. The image quality of both the 16-45mm and 16-50mm are very close. Considering the weather sealing in the DA*16-50mm, you will probably upgrade to it someday. You will not be disappointed. The perfect kit for starting out (in my opinion) would be the K20D, DA*16-50mm, and DA*50-135mm.

That being said, I can highly recommend the DA*50-135mm lens. It is comparable in sharpness and image quality to some primes.

Enjoy your camera, and show us lots of pictures!

[rparmar]

Originally Posted by Karn

Pentax K-adapter for M42

Wow, you're really planning ahead for that LBA!

[vagrant10]

That's an awesome kit!

Keep an eye out in Craigslist, garage sales or pawn shops for good deals on older pentax glass... there are many old great lenses out there that are sometimes inexpensive but fun to use.

Good luck with your new cam and take lots of pics so you learn fast. I know the first few pics I took with a DSLR left me a bit intimidated, but as I have picked up so much knowledge from sites like this, I can't imagine being satisfied with only a point and shoot cam anymore. I'm sure once you get the hang of things, you'll love the camera and pictures you take. Congrats!

[Karn]

Yeah, been having great fun with it today. Got some good, alot of bad and a few decent ones.
Only been shooting jpeg so far.

Promised earlier to share my first pic, so here it is. My first picture outside, shooting underexposed pictures of my hands inside doesn't count as a first imo . My girlfriend is gonna hate me, but ahwell. I like what this camera can do, with me using it as not much more than a P&S at the moment.


Some PP, but not much.

[rparmar]

Your girlfriend is going to hate you? Not if you continue shooting her like that!

EDIT: Um, hold on. Unless that's not your girlfriend. In which case, yeah, you're doomed.