Originally posted by Hendrik I have been looking at the K200D but I don't know if I would miss the live view(in bright sunlight not very visible) all my compacts have had. So am now considering the K20D. My budget is limited, will most likely shoot wide angle- street scenes and landscape. Lens prices scare me.
Hendrik, welcome. When I got a DSLR a couple of years ago (a K100D Super at the time) I did find I missed the LV of a P&S. But that feeling didn't last long. You soon come to realise that LV, while useful in some specific situations (studio; over the head crowd stuff if you have an articulated LCD screen), is not very useful in general situations.
1. You don't get steady camera control with the camera held at arms length.
2. As you mentioned, sunlight problems.
3. General slowness of the refresh rate - a lag as you pan.
4. Difficulty following a fast moving object.
I've hardly ever used the LV on my K20D and would not miss it if was not there at all.
An high performance electronic viewfinder would be interesting (latest Panasonic) and may well become more common in the future, but at this time, the optical VF on a DSLR, with reviewing afterwards from the LCD, works well.
The cost of new lenses scares me too. I don't have a lot of money to spend on this hobby as I've got 4 young kids. The only new Pentax lenses I've bought were a Mk. II kit lens (18-55/F3.5-5.6 II) for the K100DS (it came with a crappy Sigma lens) and a DA 55-300/F4-5.8.
My current general-use lens on the K20D is the DA 16-45/F4. I got this for a good price 2nd hand.
Otherwise I have older, mainly manual focus prime lenses. If you are doing static shots (flowers, portraits, landscapes), MF is not a problem. I've managed to buy a number of good-quality old lens at good prices on ebay. So I'd suggest 1 or 2 modern zooms, and the rest, M42, K, A series lenses.
Dan.