Gear nerd...

My sleeve is now soaking wet, from wiping the drool off my face! I've been poring over a couple of my favorite retail websites, deciding on another camera and lens. A friend is possibly going to buy part of my 'old' kit next week - I say this tongue-in-cheek, because I've only been at this game for a year and a half, so how OLD can my stuff be, right?? But, the beauty (or perhaps beast) of technology is that it is ever-changing, always advancing, and there is bigger, better, faster, smarter stuff showing up on a daily basis... and I figure if I rid my carrying case of a few items, then logic dictates that I get to replace them. Well, at least MY logic works that way, anyhow!! Plus I already unloaded a body and lens a few weeks ago, to another friend of a friend... Jeesh, I'm feeling more vulnerable by the minute, I'd hate to be without a backup!

So... in case you're wondering... I am a Pentaxian. (Ha ha! I love saying that, it's a funny word and makes me laugh out loud!) My boyfriend had a circa 1900's ME - okay, probably not 1900's, but it was pretty ANTIQUE - with a good range of lenses and several rolls of unused film. A couple of years ago, when I expressed interest in furthering my photography skills, he offered it up for my experimentation. Of course with me having super-limited photo taking knowledge, I felt a film camera seemed cumbersome and inconvenient, and I'm far too impatient to wait even for 1-hour photo developing. So I hit the web and began researching digital SLR's. At first I was drawn to Pentax because 99.9% of their lenses fit on 99.9% of their single lens reflex cameras. They are one of the few manufacturers who haven't felt the need to change the lens mount on every other camera model they build - bonus! I'd have four lenses right from the get-go! I was objective however and learned the pros and cons of Canon, Nikon, Olympus and others as well. Pentax still seemed to have the most features on my wants/needs list, and after reading review after review after review about their newest revelation, the K10D, I set my heart on that particular toy. A toy that was not yet available in Canada... D'OH! Again, having no patience whatsoever, I ordered my first DSLR in December 2006 from a shop in New York.

Shortly after I started shooting with it, I realized that while yes, the old-school lenses did indeed fit on the new-school K10D, it was quite an effort to effectively use them. None of the automatic functions worked and I learned real quick about the manual settings on my camera. Not long into the whole affair, I purchased a variety of digital-compatible lenses. Tamron, Sigma, Pentax... I have some of each. Which posed a new dilemna in itself - multiple lenses, one body. Changing lenses in the middle of fast-paced sporting events irritated me and soon I convinced myself that a second body would be the answer. By this time, the K10D's were for sale everywhere, for a third the original price.

Yes, two bodies with my two favorite lenses, ready to go at a moment's notice, it was lovely! Until I was in Chapters one afternoon, thumbing through some photography mag, and I read that Pentax was coming out with a bigger, better, faster, smarter version of what I already had TWO of.... AAAACK!

For a few months, I was uncharacteristically patient and only stopped by our local camera shop a couple of times to ogle the K20D. But just before my birthday, I caved... and that's what I used as an excuse to buy one - happy birthday to me!!

Now the question is, do I wait around for awhile, in the event that Pentax might have a K30D or something up their technological sleeve? Or, should I get back to my surfing and drooling and line up another K20D. I sure like the camera, I like both the models I own actually. And really... how much bigger, better, faster, smarter of a machine am I ever going to need? I'll have to think about this one for awhile. I'll let you know how it pans out.

Cheers.