Photography junkies I need your opinions!

I have no professional opinion, but when I see pretty new cameras I change my pants.

I’m jealous you can afford it.

@as: Lets just say ive changed my pants quite often while researching my options ;)
at the moment I’m hoping i can afford it, im counting my Christmas money chickens before the hatch haha.

wow I am surprised there is a Dig SLR that is 10mp for 600 dollars out there! That gives me hope that one day I will own a digital SLR…
Anyway I would say go for it. Good price. Good MP. And I have a Pentax film SLR that is old as shit but works great! So they probably still make a good product.
How serious of a photographer are you?

It has a good customer review rating as well so thats good…

@mad: I don’t really have much photography experience, but i want to learn and I am really serious about teaching myself the art of photography.

ok then I would say to get this one for sure! If you are just getting into don’t go an buy a really expensive one, this will work just fine…

My advice is to get either a Canon or Nikon body within the same price range. I shoot Canon professionally, but both manufatures make a great camera.

The reason I recommend these two is because you’ll have a wider assortment of quality brand and 3rd party lenses. Which is where you want to be investing your money. New bodies come out every 6 months, a good lens can last you a lifetime. In addition to the massivly underratted amount that lenses have on image quality.

Don’t get hung up on megapixels. 50mp will only look as good as the lens and sensor quality allow. Manufactures will try and exploit consumers using this method. I can honeslty you’ll prob never need anything higher than 8.2mp for a few years, which is plenty to print a 16×20.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

@ spargett I totally agree with you as well and meant to mention something about lenses as well, I just forgot. Also I do not own a Digital SLR and I do not know the price ranges for lenses. Using generic, but quality, lenses could it be cheaper to get a Canon or Nikon body and then purchase lenses? Also I agree about the MP’s not being much of a factor as an image can only ha SO MUCH resolution but I figured if he could get the 10 MP for cheap why not?

@spargett someone told me that pentax hasnt changed their lens mounting system for a really long time, so it is possible to find really old antique lenses for cheap. Is this true?

Jacob: You can find old inexpensive lens for nearly any high (er) end camera, but that doesn’t mean they will work very well and you will probably certainly lose all of the automatic features of the camera body. As far as mounts go, more then likely the lens will be either screw mount or bayonet mount. These are in no way (easily) interchangeable. Do some research on the Pentax as for availability of Pentax or after-market lens. I use the Nikon system but have no problem with the Canon systems, it just what ever you started with, you tend to stay with.

@cardinal: Thank you for this advice! I’ll go do some more research on pentax after-market lenses :)

Sigma makes great comparable lenses for half the price. I use their 70–200 2.8f and people can’t tell the difference between that and the $1,700 Canon alternative.

I’ve heard a little about Pentax lenses, but the brand itself just doesn’t have the competitive edge in my opinion.