My name is Pete. I live in Wisconsin USA. I'm amateur photographer. I've owned various cameras Leika range finder, Nikon SLR, Sony point and shoot Digital, and some fall apart camera's. I like out door photography,birds animals, scenes. I've been researching SLR digitals for some time. I have been waiting for the megpix range to get up to ten and affordable. I started looking at canon and the rebel and moved on to the Nikon D80 and then Sony. Each had something but the K10D had the most features I wanted. The fact the body was sealed was an important one for me. I am not always in a dry situation and electronics and water don't mix. Image stableization was important also. The comments about the battery grip I read here and on other sites was a plus. The avalibility of lens in telephoto was a negative at least in my price range compared to other camera's. I got the 50-200 f 4.5-5.6 I will just have to see what it will do. In the mean time I will work on getting my skills up to fully utilizing the camera. Right now I'm pumped and waiting for the camera to arrive. I want to thank people on this forum for their insight and comments.

Pete - enjoy your K10D. I've been a Pentax man for years and the K10D really is a magnificent beast of a camera - easily the best thing Pentax has come out with for a very long time, and I've used most of them. I've also got the 50-200 and it's not a bad lens at all - even at the extreme ends its pretty sharp. Enjoy it!

Cheers
Mike

Congrats Pete on your "wise" choice. hehe... I've the *ist DL and also the 50-200. It's my main lens. I hope to soon get the K10D but, gotta save the money first.
I'm trying to think where Merril is. My wife and I just moved from Platteville in the sw corner of Wisconsin.
Enjoy your journey with the K10D.

Mike, Thanks for the vote of confidence on the K10D. I did sweat a bit before laying down that chunk of money. I havn't a decent camera shop within 90 miles of my place, so I didn't get to fondel one in person. All I could do is read as many reviews as possible. Back in the old days the two main cameras were the Pentax and Nikon. Now it seems its Canon and Nikon. I think with the K10D Pentax will be back in the game.

I will be looking at some faster glass in the future. I really don't know much about telaconverters 1.5 or 2X but I would really like to reach out. I have a Bald Eagle that has a nest about two blocks from my house. Some times it flys right over my front yard. Its going to get shot :eek: With my K10D of course:)

Ken, I hope you get theK10D and while your saving your money remember its slowly coming down in price. UPS told me my camera is going to arrive on the 21first " Time is going slow"

Merrill is in the North middle of the state or where the North begins. North of us is where the lakes and tourst area begins and South of us is farming. All most every town on the Wis river has a paper mill. Foresty is a big business up here. Happy shooting
Pete

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f182/wispete/Pentaxfirst004.jpg

The first picture taken with my new camera K10D In full auto No editing.