Quote:
it's a Pentax MZ-50 with a 35-80mm lense, so you can tell me whether the lense is worth keeping ,,, be honest


The Pentax D-SLRs as well as D-SLRs from every other vendor (with the exception of Olympus) have about a 1.5x magnification factor as a result of the D-SLR's sensor being smaller than a 35mm frame (Olympus has a 2x magnification). That means your 35-80mm lens turns into roughly a 52-120mm lens. That's means you don't get any wide angle at all.

Most of the current "kit" lenses start much wider, e.g., the Pentax 18-55mm lens that comes as part of the *ist DS kit (kit price at B&H: $999). The Nikon kit has an 18-70mm lens (with a fast, ultrasonic motor) and costs $1199 after a $100 rebate. Whichever camera you buy, you should get the kit lens as well.

Quote:
- Nice View - i.e. long shot
- Interesting thing / animal. 30cm - 3m type shots.
- pictures of buildings etc.
What would I need to be able to do this. What would you recommend?


The kit lens does most of what you might need except for extreme closeups (i.e., pictures of objects smaller than a foot across) and long shots. Your obvious second lens would be some kind of longer zoom lens. With Nikon gear, that would most likely be the 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 ED ($249 at B&H) or the cheaper plasticky "G" version of the lens ($129 at B&H). Sigma and Tamron have comparable lenses in the same price range that have better macro capabilities, whereas the Nikon-brand lenses don't really do close-ups. Instead, for Nikon, you'd want to shell out the extra bucks for 105mm "micro" ($529 at B&H) or 60mm "micro" ($329 at B&H). The Nikon "micro" lenses will let you take a full-frame picture of something the size of a penny, whereas the Sigma/Tamron macro zooms probably don't go any smaller than a business card. Pentax offers comparable lenses at comparable prices, plus all the same Sigma and Tamron lenses will be available in Pentax mounts.

The place where Nikon or Canon will really beat Pentax is:

- Rental gear - if you decide you need something exotic, maybe because you're shooting some sports thing on a Saturday afternoon, you can rent big Nikon and Canon glass. $100 or so will get you a serious professional lens for a weekend. Rental shops don't carry Pentax.

- Used gear - There's just more used gear out there for Nikon and Canon. Most of the used gear you'll find, in general, will probably be manual focus lenses. New Nikon cameras are compatible with old Nikon manual focus lenses, some of which are amazingly sharp. Likewise, new Pentax cameras are compatible with older manual focus Pentax lenses. Canon, for contrast, completely changed their lens mount when moving to autofocus, so all the old Canon manual lenses won't work on new Canon cameras without some sort of adapter.

- Assorted accessories - whether you're looking for exotic flashes, waterproof enclosures, 3rd party software support, or heaven knows what else, these things tend to follow the market share. Right now, that means Nikon or Canon.

- Upgrade path - if and when you decide to spend more money on more exotic lenses, flash systems, higher-end camera bodies, and so forth, Nikon and Canon have a broader product line than Pentax. Canon has been more aggressive in getting a number of technologies to market, notably its pricey lenses with vibration reduction and ultrasonic wave motors. Nikon is playing catch-up on that front and nobody else comes close. Nikon has been more aggressive in flash systems, where the camera and possibly multiple flashes communicate with each other to sort out who should put out how much light. Canon's playing catch-up and nobody else is close.