I have been taken pictures with a SLR since I was in high school, 1985. I have been off and on with photography as a happy snapper. I purchased a Pentax MZ50 in 1997, and used that camera pretty heavily for a year. Until film development cost got the better of me and I realized that I had photo from 2 separate new Years day celebration :) . I purchase my first dSLR (pentax, to use the old lenses) in 2006, unfortunately this camera died 3 days after i purchased it on a OS trip, it was replace and had been sparing used till 2009, I decided to learn to get more serious with a camera. But I had to justify to my self that I will actually use the new camera, I bit the bullet and moved over to canon, my old Pentax is used by my wife and kids.