And they've had better objectives applied to them: http://www.ted.com/talks/john_la_grou_plugs_smart_power_outlets_1.htm l

I'm not sure how this is remotely a /. item, but nevertheless... I have to agree with the AC (parent to this msg) on the K-1000 and other recommendations, with some slight adjustments:

1. If you can find one, pick up a Ricoh KR-5. You want the original KR-5 (introduced 1979), not the later versions (Super-II etc) because you want the fully manual version. Take the KR-5 for all the same reasons you'd take the K-1000, except that the Ricoh is smaller and lighter with much better ergonomics; I also like its light meter much better than the K-1000's. It only does 500 shutter speed, not 1000 like the Pentax, but that never bothered me - I always used the slowest film I could find. The Ricoh uses the same Pentax-K mount as the K-1000, so lenses are interchangeable with the Pentax stuff.

2. Spend money on lenses, as has been well said. It is true that you may later wish to change to a camera body that doesn't have the same mount as the Pentax-K (e.g., a Nikon body). Strongly consider Tamron lenses, as they have (unique among professional-quality lenses) an adapter-ring that fits onto the lens so that if you ever change camera bodies, you can just buy the new adapter rings rather than have to replace the lens. If you absolutely must buy cheaper lenses for budget reasons to get going, stop yourself at 2, and then save up and replace those with better ones when you are able. 3. If you have the darkroom available, strongly recommend bulk buys of black and white films that you can process and print yourself. Apart from learning on a fully manual camera, darkroom work is one of the best ways to understand the whole photographic process and equip you to get the best results out of your equipment. 4. Decent film. Experiment to find what works for you, but settle into a small number of film types / speeds and stick with them through the learning process so you have a constant as you experiment. I always liked the Ilford products for B&W but got great results with T-Max too. For colour, my own choice for print film was AGFA which I could get at ISO 25 or 50. As I said, I always went for the slowest film and got the best results by lengthening the shutter speed. Of course, if you're into action photography, this won't work so well for you.

5. Slow film and long shutter speeds reminds me of one other accessory you'll want - a tripod. Doesn't have to be too fancy or expensive, just as sturdy as you can find. If you can spend a little extra on one, I always liked my Cullmann Universal 3335 Macro Tripod - does virtually anything and everything, and you won't mind carrying it fair distances.

I must admit though, I have one beef with the Ricoh KR-5 that I still have. Can't get the darn thing to run Linux. If anybody knows of a project to port Linux to an entirely manual SLR, please let me know.

-brt