Originally posted by RonHendriks1966 But he wants to enjoy the camera for the coming 4 years, so what's in the few it takes learning, even if they become some months.
Exactly. And, of course, the K-3 can be a camera as easy to use as any other: just put it in the green mode and you get results. Probably not the best possible but surely results that are more than acceptable for a beginner (if Arne should be a beginner at all).
When I started out into digital photography in 2005 I had not used a SLR for years and got an affordable bridge cam. I sonn noticed its limitations and started looking for a better cam. After some budget problems I finally got the K20D in 2008, maybe the best available APS-C cam out there right then. I was a very early adopter, among the first to get the cam in Germany. I was not for a second afraid that the cam would overwhelm me - and it never did - although I had A LOT to learn.
Today, I am still using the K20D as my main cam (hopefully, my K-3 will arrive in two weeks :-D ), and I think it was a very good decision to buy a cam I could grow into. No frustrations on my path, I could try out whatever I wanted because the cam had the features, it was rewarding to buy good glass etc. I never had buyers remorse and I'd probably be on my third or fourth DSLR today had I bought a K10D, K100s or K200 at the time of my decision - and I would have spent a lot more money than I did by going for the top model.
So, my recommendation is, if you are serious about photography - and a budget of 2000 € definitely sounds serious to me besides Arne's very specific demand for help here - go for the top model that will last for some time as much physically as by its feature set.