Yaaay for Gear!

Well, I caved today, and I caved HARD. No excuses or reasons. It just happened. I bought another camera body... and a lens. Of course I went with Pentax on both counts - the fabulous K20D plus the DA 18-250mm. A fantastic, all-purpose combination in my opinion, perfect for those times when you absolutely don't have room to take a whole ton of camera gear with you. After I'm finished this post, I'm going to dig the new toys out of their boxes and get them all set up. By set up I mean that I'm going to configure the settings on the new camera to match the ones on my existing camera... that way, everything that I'm used to will be the same on the second rig. As well, I'm going to download the firmware upgrade for the K20D off Pentax's website. I'm not sure yet what changes it effects, however I've read about better noise reduction when using the 2-second timer and other minor improvements. I figure it can't hurt, plus it's free. Also, Pentax has come out with another version of the Photo Browser/Laboratory software which is provided with the camera. If you are interested in either of the downloads, visit Pentax Imaging's Customer Care and Self Support pages at http://www.pentaximaging.com/customer_care/self_support/ .

One last thought, before I make like a kid at Christmas and start ripping into my presents... to filter, or not to filter?? I have to admit, I am torn. On one hand, I definitely want to protect my expensive glass from scratches and the like. On the other hand, do I want to compromise the crisp, sharp capture my expensive glass promises, by layering something on top of it? I never store my camera without the lens cap in place; in fact I hardly ever even carry it around without the cap on the lens. So really, what are the chances of me catastrophically damaging the glass... I suppose if it takes a hard enough beating, the filter isn't going to save it anyhow, right? Actually, funny story from one of the salesmen in the camera shop today: He remembers way back in the day when smoking was the norm and everybody had a cigarette hanging from their lips at all times. He said the Pentax reps would come into the store, and to prove the durability of the proprietary SMC coating, they'd butt out their cigs right smack on a lens! I gasped just listening to this and I cringe at the thought of testing out this theory.

However, it sounds like perhaps I've talked myself into leaving my lenses naked, so to speak. My Pentax models anyway. At the very least, I'm going to give it try for the next little while and see how many 'close calls' I think I experience.

If you start to see pictures here that look a little 'rough'... i.e. a big fuzzy line running across the same spot in every photo... well maybe my experiment didn't work out so well?! But I'll keep you posted.

Cheers.