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I was once a professional, commercial photographer. But I've said that before. I have a lot of 'silver-based gear' - you know, cameras that use actual film. Most of it isn't worth much anymore, although back in the day it was the bomb. My Canon T90 was the best manual focus camera Canon ever made, and at one time commanded prices over $1000 for new old stock, when it was only $499 new just a year or two before. The stable of FD lenses I have are very nice pieces of glass that have done well for me in my service, but today you can't get much for them.

The Hasselblad is still a damned fine piece of equipment, in spite of being some 30+ years old. If I thought I would ever be able to afford the Hassy digital back (yes, it will still fit on a 30+ year old Hassy body!) I wouldn't even consider getting rid of it, but the least expensive of those is $10k. Not happening.

A couple of years ago I moved up to a digital SLR. The Pentax *ist DL. I've been very happy with the machine, and found a few really nice Pentax manual focus lenses to pair with it to great effect. It's got a very nice set of features, and was the big bang-for-the-buck winner back in the 6 megapixel DSLR days, and it still takes lovely pictures, but it's getting a little long in the tooth. The megapixel race is way up there now with the Canon top-of-the-line pushing over 20 megapixels!

I've decided that I'm going to sell off all of my silver-based gear - all but one body and lens in case I ever get the wild urge to shoot real film again - and buy a new body, the Pentax K20D. You should read the specs on this baby. Metal frame, dust and moisture seals all over, over 14 megapixels, and it uses all of the Pentax lenses you can get your hands on. It's got shake reduction - amazing shake reduction. The CCD is on gimbals with linear motors that can move it in the film plane, and it jostles around to match the camera movement, keeping your shot (within reason) sharp. The CCD also has a special anti-dust coating, and can shake dust off of itself like a dog that just got out of the tub.

But all that aside, there's another extremely important thing that the Pentax now has. The Carl Zeiss T* lenses. No, Pentax didn't start buying their glass from germany, but Zeiss has added the Pentax KA mount to their 35MM lineup. Sure, they all cost close to a thousand dollars, but so do Canon's storied "L" series lenses. The idea of walking around with a Zeiss 35mm F2.0 Distagon on a 14 megapixel plus digital camera? I could comfortably live without my Hassy at that point. And if I ever felt the desperate need to shoot film again, I could pick up the nearest Pentax K1000, click my ZK Distagon onto it and shoot away.

Sure, Canon makes excellent cameras and lenses, as does Nikon and Olympus and friends. If you're starting out new and you need the broadest accessory base and widest new lens selection, by all means, buy a Canon or Nikon. But if you, like me, have a budget to live by, and still want to play with the big boys, you should give the Pentax line a good, hard look. I think they're still the bang-for-the-buck winner, hands down.