[Ex Finn.]

Have fun with your new toys when you get them. Just in case you come up with battery/power questions, check the sticky in the field accessories section.Battery for K-x (and other cameras that take AA's) - PentaxForums.com

[RioRico]

I didn't mean to incite a minor riot!

Emotions can run high. I think it was university president Woodrow Wilson who said that academic debates were so vicious because the stakes were so low.

I think I will just go with the camera and two kit lenses and play until I see what I can get them to do; that should keep me busy for a while. This has convinced me to hang onto the old lenses, and will play with them, too. It's great to know that there are so many options open (Thank you, Pentax!)

You have chosen wisely, grasshopper. I'll throw in an opinion on lenses: It's nice to have the best available. But the best lens is the one you use; the worst is the one you DON'T use. By that light, some of my best lenses are among my cheapest, and some of the worst are the most expensive. [I still kick myself for buying the Lil'Bigma 170-500.]

Then there's the challenge of defining 'best'. Is sharpest, best? Then some of my US$8 enlarger lenses are 'best'. Is most-corrected, best? Then least-corrected must be 'worst'. But some of those least-corrected deliver images with qualities and character that 'better' glass can't approach. I like using cheap projector lenses on bellows for just that reason, and to give a 'period' air to some photos.

Other qualities may be used to determine what's 'best' -- fast AF, wide aperture, general build and handling. But all that misses the point. What we really want are lenses that deliver images we can use. Period. How those pix will be consumed may dictate the lens used. I shoot RAW and I shoop it all. Maybe just a little PP, maybe a lot. So some images require hi-quality hi-speed sharp glass, and some don't. Some should look like they belong in travel magazines, and some don't. One size does NOT fit all.

So play with those lenses, see what they'll do, and make them deliver the images you want. Another truism: What you want to see, what you DO see, what the camera sees, and what's actually there (if anything), are not the same. My goal is to make a picture look the way I want it to look. But that's just me. YMMV.

[DaveHolmes]

This has convinced me to hang onto the old lenses, and will play with them, too.

This is a very wise decision indeed which will no doubt save you millions of dollars in your upcoming LBA as ebay prices sky-rocket!!

[Ira]

Hray, I shoot like Mike--I use all old M42s, mostly Taks.

Since you've always shot manual focus, I don't think you're going to find auto focus such a necessity, because for guys like us, old habits die hard. (54 here--ouch.)

And the build quality of every one of my Taks blows away most modern lenses away.

While the 18-55 is a "decent" lens (the 55-300 much better), it's going to feel like a toy compared to the weight and build of your old lenses.