Rhonda, I welcome you and I congratulate you on your good taste.
I bought my first DSLR, a Pentax K100D Super with a Sigma 18-50/F3.5-5.6 DC zoom lens, back in Sep or Oct 2007. Since then I've bought quite a few old lenses (see my profile for details).
With this camera, the type of AA battery you use is important. The best common type is Low Self Discharge batteries like Sanyo Eneloop. Standard Ni-MH batteries have a different voltage discharge slope. The camera does not like the voltage to droop too much and LSD-type batteries work better here. Otherwise you may find a problem with high-capacity Ni-MH batteries appearing to be empty far too soon.
What are the general problems with kit lenses?
1. Small apertures (large F-numbers) means that they pick up less light so they have problems with noise-free shots or auto-focusing in low-light conditions. A "fast" (more light gathering ability so it can be used with faster shutter speeds) zoom is F2.8 which is big, heavier and much more expensive than a kit zoom lens.
2. Cheap build quality – "plasticky".
3. Zooms are harder to make than primes (both fixed focal length lenses), so cheap zooms are worse than cheap primes. Pin-cushion distortion, vignetting (darker outer area compared to the centre) at wide angles, sometimes a lack of contrast, lack of sharpness (particularly at wide-open aperture and at long focal lengths), chromatic aberrations (coloured edges).
I would suggest when you are ready to look for better-quality lenses, the first one you consider is a "fast 50". This is a 50mm lens of F1.4, F1.7 or F1.8 aperture. This type will give you better quality optics than a kit zoom lens (sharper, better contrast, less distortion, better low-light sensitivity) and are usually good value.
The easiest to use version is the Pentax-FA or earlier Pentax-F (auto-exposure & auto-focus), followed by the older Pentax-A (auto-exposure) and then the Pentax-M (completely manual). The (Pentax) Super Takumar M42 version (42mm screw mount – completely manual) is a popular golden oldie, but you must get the right M42-K mount adapter (recessed rather than flange type) as the thickness of the flange adapter prevents the lens focusing at infinity.
The K100D series is well suited to the old non-auto-exposure lenses (M, K, M42) as its AE-L button can be used to set the right shutter speed for the selected aperture (F-stop) to achieve a correct exposure. The K100D's do a better job of this than the fancier K10D. By the way, these old M, K & M42 lenses tend to be much cheaper to purchase than the modern auto-everything lenses and you learn more using them.
A good site to learn the principles of exposure is
Digital Camera Tips and Reviews: Photonhead, The Essence of Modern Film and Digital Photography. The SimCam there is particularly good.
Similar Threads 
