[interested_observer]

...

Total was slightly higher than my max I wanted to spend, but the only thing I really can see 'needing' at this point is an extra, larger sd card, ...

About 3 years ago SanDisk had a give away of sets of 3 - 4GB SD cards - a black Friday promotion. The point is that there have been very few times that I have overflowed one card. 4GB and 8GB cards are pretty inexpensive. You don't need to have everything all at once. There is more than enough time for you to go broke over photography stuff in the future.

I have been meaning to get a spare battery for the K20 now since I picked it up - its been 2.5 years now - and still going strong.

The key is to use and understand what you have. There are workarounds for just about all situations you may find yourself in, as opposed to gotta get a new ----------.

[abacus07]

Congrats on the new purchase. And welcome to the money pit. Just plan on wearing a hard hat (preferably with a face shield) because you're going to want a lot of stuff.

but the good news is that if you're a careful shopper it's almost impossible not to be able to sell a Pentax (or other name brand) lens for the purchase price (or more).

I probably would have recommended going with a used K20D or a new/used K-r/K-x so you could accelerate acquiring your kit. And there is so much more than just buying the camera and lens. I just dropped $300 on a CF tripod (for hiking/backpacking) and have spent almost the same amount on filters (2 POL (49 and 52) and a 2, 3 and 10 stop ND). Add a lenspen and blower plus the Pentax sensor cleaning kit. A bigger card isn't really needed but a 2nd/3rd card permanently stored in your camera bag is. I ALWAYS forget my card in the computer. You'll need/want computer software although I've taken on the challenge of learning the excellent and free but difficult GIMP. A strong enough computer is needed. I'm sure this list could go on forever.

I would not recommend using my lens acquisition strategy. I'm single and can get away with it. I'm impulsive on Ebay and have used zero long-term planning. But I can probably sell every lens that I've acquired for at least my purchase price.

Everybody will be different but a basic prime/zoom combo strategy - of course everyone's interests are different. A portrait photographer might want several different 50/70/100mm lenses with big apertures. I'm a landscape photographer and I'm overloaded with 24-50mm lenses (and soon a DA15).
WA (prime or zoom) - DA15, Sigma 10-20, Pentax 12-24, Tamron 10-24, etc... - pretty much there are no cheap options for really good WA's on DSLR - 400-600
A normal 28-35mm - the DA L 35 is a great bang for the buck as is the FA 35/2 or DA40 - 200-350 - a lot of great choices at every price level from M28/2.8 ($40) to the FA31 (900ish)
fast fifty - you have a great one but will probably want AF for this focal length (I really do) - F50/1.7-FA50/1.4 - 200-350
90-105mm (macro?) - these seem to be great multipurpose lenses - macro/telephoto/portrait - 200-500

Zooms that I'm indefinitely delaying
A general purpose zoom upgrade - sigma 24-70/2.8 or Tamron 28-75/2.8 would be my current choice
A telephoto zoom starting at the 55-300 and getting much, much more expensive

[rtpguy]

@finn - I don't see 'needing' a battery grip. I'm used to keeping a spare charged battery on hand, and if even 500 shots on a battery are realistic, a battery in camera and a charged spare should do me quite well/reasonably.

@interested_observer - yeah, this is a great quote

You don't need to have everything all at once. There is more than enough time for you to go broke over photography stuff in the future.

I have been meaning to get a spare battery for the K20 now since I picked it up - its been 2.5 years now - and still going strong.

The key is to use and understand what you have. There are workarounds for just about all situations you may find yourself in, as opposed to gotta get a new ----------.

Effectively, the battery and 8GB card were freebies. What's the general per image size with the K5 shooting as RAW+JPG? ~20MB/per? Or am I way off there? 20MB per pic would equate to ~400 pictures on an 8GB. I'm bad about SD cards - even though I have a NAS, I tend to leave pics on the card, in case the wife also wants to pull them to her system, as well as for 'pretend backup' just in case. The flip side is my wife will also be using the camera, and has occasionally managed to leave the card in the card reader, so keeping a spare around seems like an obvious good idea. Looks like 8 or 16GB are the sweet spot and quite cheap, if I'm right on the per image size, a 16GB + the 8GB as backup would keep me sane.

I would like to pick up at least a decent photography book that will help in getting beyond auto mode, any recommendations welcome.

[rtpguy]

Congrats on the new purchase. And welcome to the money pit. Just plan on wearing a hard hat (preferably with a face shield) because you're going to want a lot of stuff.

but the good news is that if you're a careful shopper it's almost impossible not to be able to sell a Pentax (or other name brand) lens for the purchase price (or more).

I probably would have recommended going with a used K20D or a new/used K-r/K-x so you could accelerate acquiring your kit. And there is so much more than just buying the camera and lens. I just dropped $300 on a CF tripod (for hiking/backpacking) and have spent almost the same amount on filters (2 POL (49 and 52) and a 2, 3 and 10 stop ND). Add a lenspen and blower plus the Pentax sensor cleaning kit. A bigger card isn't really needed but a 2nd/3rd card permanently stored in your camera bag is. I ALWAYS forget my card in the computer. You'll need/want computer software although I've taken on the challenge of learning the excellent and free but difficult GIMP. A strong enough computer is needed. I'm sure this list could go on forever.

I've got the lens pen and sensor cleaning kit on the 'future list.' I'm not worried about the software or the computer, as I work in the tech field. i have an S-IPS LCD, core i7 quad Macbook, and get heavy discounts on Adobe and other software, plus GIMP is always an option. I've got a tripod, and it will have to do, at least for a time. If someone starts paying me to take pics, I can go look at CF..

The K-x might have been a good alternative except for the lack of weather-proofing and the amount of time we spend in nature, but hey, there's always the possibility of my wife 'adopting' the K5. At which point, i may well find myself looking for a used K7 or K20 in the future. I just read someone's thread who has been using a *ist D for some 5 years, and has taken some amazing pictures.

I would not recommend using my lens acquisition strategy. I'm single and can get away with it. I'm impulsive on Ebay and have used zero long-term planning.

I can relate. Married life has me doing much more planning and watching where I might be wasting money, but it helps that my wife is onboard with the idea of finally going DSLR. How much she remains onboard for future lens discussions - we'll see. If nothing else, there's always some $ we always spend on each other's hobbies, it's just a matter of how fast or slow something like a $500+ lens might work out..

Everybody will be different but a basic prime/zoom combo strategy - of course everyone's interests are different. A portrait photographer might want several different 50/70/100mm lenses with big apertures. I'm a landscape photographer and I'm overloaded with 24-50mm lenses (and soon a DA15).
WA (prime or zoom) - DA15, Sigma 10-20, Pentax 12-24, Tamron 10-24, etc... - pretty much there are no cheap options for really good WA's on DSLR - 400-600
A normal 28-35mm - the DA L 35 is a great bang for the buck as is the FA 35/2 or DA40 - 200-350 - a lot of great choices at every price level from M28/2.8 ($40) to the FA31 (900ish)
fast fifty - you have a great one but will probably want AF for this focal length (I really do) - F50/1.7-FA50/1.4 - 200-350
90-105mm (macro?) - these seem to be great multipurpose lenses - macro/telephoto/portrait - 200-500

Zooms that I'm indefinitely delaying
A general purpose zoom upgrade - sigma 24-70/2.8 or Tamron 28-75/2.8 would be my current choice
A telephoto zoom starting at the 55-300 and getting much, much more expensive

Noted for the future Looking at some of the shots people have posted, I'm quite positive it will be neither the camera nor the lenses I've chosen holding me back 'for some time yet.'
I'll see how the 50 and the 18-55 work out for daylight outdoor shots, but I expect to be using the zoom fairly often as well outdoors. I did spend some time thinking about the lens selection, knowing this would be 'it' until at least the holidays hit, and I think I've got reasonable coverage - the pair of zooms will also give me a good idea of the percentage of time I wind up using each range in real life, letting me hopefully make a more educated and less 'someone said this is good, so I should buy it' approach. I hope so, anyways. You may well be right on the AF on the 50, or I may wind up wanting a faster lens in the 18-35mm range, but I think I've got a good start and give me quite some time before claiming 'I don't have a lens I can get that picture with'...

Here's hoping, at least.

[smallfooties]

'Understanding Exposure' is a pretty good book to read to help you progress in your photography...

[abacus07]

In the end I think it comes down to how soon you can allocate more money to put together a basic high IQ kit. Nothing against the 18-55 but if you're dropping the cash on a K-5 then it doesn't make sense to use the kit lens for a long time. However if you're okay with MF then you can add some great lenses for a fraction of the cost compared to a set of ltd primes. I'll probably upgrade to a K-5 at some point but that doesn't mean I'll necessarily upgrade from $50-100 MF lenses. Except of course the DA15 since that has something that the old MF lenses don't.

Understanding Exposure was excellent although I need to apply what I've read better. I still point, shoot, review and adjust +/-. And then try to fix in post processing if necessary.

[Rondec]

@finn - I don't see 'needing' a battery grip. I'm used to keeping a spare charged battery on hand, and if even 500 shots on a battery are realistic, a battery in camera and a charged spare should do me quite well/reasonably.

@interested_observer - yeah, this is a great quote




Effectively, the battery and 8GB card were freebies. What's the general per image size with the K5 shooting as RAW+JPG? ~20MB/per? Or am I way off there? 20MB per pic would equate to ~400 pictures on an 8GB. I'm bad about SD cards - even though I have a NAS, I tend to leave pics on the card, in case the wife also wants to pull them to her system, as well as for 'pretend backup' just in case. The flip side is my wife will also be using the camera, and has occasionally managed to leave the card in the card reader, so keeping a spare around seems like an obvious good idea. Looks like 8 or 16GB are the sweet spot and quite cheap, if I'm right on the per image size, a 16GB + the 8GB as backup would keep me sane.

I would like to pick up at least a decent photography book that will help in getting beyond auto mode, any recommendations welcome.

Size of files depends on what iso you are shooting. RAW files range from 20 megabytes at low iso to 35 megabytes at really high iso (6400/12800). I use 8 GB and 16 GB cards and as long as you don't shoot much video, they should last a little while.

Understanding Exposure is a good book. I also liked the Scott Kelby digital photography series.