[BestRN]

Hi,
I just read your posting...I see you are from South LA--I am orig. from South MS, but now live in the St. Louis, MO area. I, too, got a K10D but as they were out of the kit lens, I got a used-but-in-excellent-shape 67mm Pentax 16-45 DA 1:4 (22) ED-AL wide angle lens. (have NO idea what most of those numbers mean :-) !), and within days bought the DA 60-200 F4:5-5:8 ED zoom lens. (Fortunately, I had a really nice gift certificate which allowed me to get the zoom for just a little addition of $$ on my part). I probably paid WAY too much for the used lens...but it really does take nice group shots and vistas. However, the zoom quickly became my favorite...altho I really wish it were a 300 zoom, as I love to take pics of birds at my feeders, etc. These were my only two lenses until last week. (I, like most everyone else who loves photography, suffer from a bad case of 'lens lust', and always am thinking "if only" when I am shooting.)What sealed my decision to get a macro / portrait lens (which I have been wanting from the very beginning) was viewing the pictures in the premier collection at the new Pentax Photo Gallery. I was simply breathtaken at some of those images. I knew then that any blame / excuse for lackluster photos coming from my camera rested squarely with me, ha~ They are awesome. Anyway, as I looked at them, I decided that I would scroll through them slowly, reading the info about them and when one of them just blew me away I'd jot down what lens was used. When I finished, the hands-down winner was the DA 100 F2.8 Macro. I think the picture of those starfish in a tidal pool in Maine, and the grasshopper closeup just did it. I HAD to have that lens, ha~ So, I did a quick search and discovered that the list price was $899--WAY out of my budget for a lens. But, I decided to 'shop it' anyway to see how much I needed to 'save up'. To my amazement, I found it on Amazon (new) for $468 with free shipping...and, on top of that, Pentax is offering a $100 rebate until 9/30/07. I just couldn't pass it up, and although I've only had it a week or so I LOVE it. The bokeh (fancy term for the patterns in the muted background I learned from one of my books I'm studying-- Digital SLR Cameras & Photography for Dummies) is simply beautiful and I cannot wait to use it in a real 'shoot'. I am absolutely an amateur, but people seem to like my pics enough to keep calling and offering me $$ to do them. If I knew how to get photos in here (since I've not done this before) I'd show you a few examples from my first attempts with the new lens. But, when I clicked on the 'insert image' icon, it asked me for a url, and my pics are on my computer...not on a designated url. And since it is late and I am really tired, I won't try to figure it out tonight. Anyway, you may want to go to the Pentax Gallery site and look at those pics...they are awesome. BestRN