Originally posted by LFLee 
congrats!
but I can't understand the part where you waited for so long and save $28 but decided to shell out $12 for shipping just to get it earlier...don't know about you, but in my place the day difference between 'prime' two days shipping and regular free shipping is not more than 2 days.
the math just doesn't make sense to me.... anyway, enjoy !
It does when you live in a tropical climate, it's high Summer, when it's 100 plus degrees most days according to the heat and humidity index. I would have spent that $12 to ship it regardless this time of year. It's freakin July and it's been hotter than usual this year, or so it seems anyway. Like I said above I got 2 dolls today that I swapped some work for and they were physically soft when they arrived. FYI, to get a vinyl doll of the type that I collect that soft they have to be in sustained heat, to a boiling level for a good long time. Now imagine a good camera out in heat that bad for a week or more. Amazon free shipping generally tends to take 5-7 days to here, not including Sundays or holidays. It's bad enough that it has to be shipped now but I'm not adding insult to injury by letting it take a week.
It's a major holiday weekend coming up. July 4th is next week. Likely I'd have gotten it before but then again I might not. Mail could be delayed. My carrier has just had his summer vacation, I think, but people go away a lot in July and that includes postal employees. It can slow things down a bit mail-wise. I definitely wanted the camera well before the holiday so that when I went out I could get used to using it and try it out. My ex roomie is having a BBQ and they have a good view of the fireworks from their roof terrace. I can't go for the whole afternoon, way too much sun and heat for me, but after dark I'd at least like to make an appearance and maybe take some pics of the fun.
Buying this camera at all wasn't really planned for just now. I wanted to wait until things cooled down a bit again at the end of Sept. But this one was red and too good a deal to pass up. I was casually watching this one because I had not seen a red one with a lens for anything near that. But I wasn't sold really until they dropped it. That drop took care of the tax basically and made it a lot more affordable for me. Amazon is charging tax now so that matters. I'd have paid more like $405 with the tax sans that drop.
So I did save a nice chunk of change by waiting a week to buy it. Plus I have a lens to sell or trade that I might pick up $35-40 for. It's not just a body for that. That's even more $$$ off what I paid for my K-30. By the time I sell my 2 kit lenses I will probably have $75 towards the balance on my K-30 or $75 to put in Hello Kitty for the 18-135 WR lens I want to go with. Every little bit counts.
Most of the K-30 kits I have seen have been well in the $575-1000 range and I just can't quite afford that right now. I need to spend no more than $700 for my K-30 and 18-135 WR kit before I am done to stick to my budget. I've just spent $375 minus what I can get for my 2 kit lenses. (Probably $300 when I've done that.) That leaves me with $400 I could spend on the WR lens. I'm actually hoping to catch a sale or a used lens later this year and maybe even pay a bit less than that, $325-350 maybe, but even if I have to buy it new I'll have that $$$ to work with. $400 is about as low as I've seen it so that's what I am aiming for. That's the goal anyway and that's why it took me so long to grab a K-30.
I do need at least one decent WR lens, for work. The 18-55 is a bit too short for work. I'd rather have the 18-135 because that's the range I use the most for portrait work but if I can't afford that then I'll probably settle for the 50-200 for a while. I could get by with that because I don't really shoot wide all that much. Having the wide end of things covered would be nice but it's not nearly as essential for me as the 50-135 MM range would be.
Most of the better WR lenses are well out my price range. My options are pretty limited compared to a lot of people. Not having one WR lens in that range it's hurt me in terms of the work I can do. That's why this camera had to be WR. I get a lot of offers to shoot people on the beach and I really can't take them and not risk ruining my gear. The K-x really just wasn't quite up to the abuse. The K-30 will be a bit more so, but of course I need at least one WR lens.
This place it's hot, humid, and sandy. It also rains a lot during parts of the year. You can get caught in an unexpected downpour very easily. I don't really intend to intentionally shoot a lot in the pouring rain WR notwithstanding, but it would be nice to be able to shoot at the beach and so forth and not have to worry quite so much, to be able to keep shooting when it starts to drizzle at least. To not have to worry quite so much about the heat and humidity doing damage to at least one of my work lenses. Fungus is totally the enemy here. I do have dry boxes etc but still I figure a WR it just might have a slightly better chance at not being infected than my regular ones?
I understand the 18-135 WR lens is very decent indeed and it suits my work range admirably. Ideally I'd like that plus the 55-300 WR to cover my preferred range completely but I don't know if I can swing that for a while. I need a second body more than I need that second lens. If work picks up a lot this year I might pick up another used body and one WR lens. But a second lens will have to wait till next year and you can bet I will be penny pinching the whole time. $25-30 bucks it may not seem like much but it's helpful to me nonetheless.
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