Choosing a camera system on the basis of lenses ?

I want to buy a new digital camera system. My total budget is approx. 3000 Euro's (3700 US dollars), of which not more than half should be spent on the camera body (I think). Since my old camera is obsolete, as are my lenses, I can start from scratch. The choice is difficult, but I would to look at the lenses first. My photography is nothing fancy or professional, I consider myself as a "serious amateur" taking all sorts of pictures. Therefore, I would like a standard zoom and a telezoom. Should I choose a particular brand of lenses, or is that too simple ? Any suggestions ? Thanks in advance

I'd look at what lenses are available in each system and see which has the ones that suit you best.

Canon's 70-200mm f/4 L is a popular telezoom choice because of it's lightweight and optical quality.

It would be very hard to beat the soon-to-be-released Pentax K10D coupled with the Pentax SMC Pentax-DA 16-45mm f4 lens, which is absolutely superb. For general photography you might never need another lens.

John

Pentax is the only manufacturer who has kept compatability with every SLR lens they every made, even their m42 screw mounts with an adapter can be used on their current digitals and SR works perfectly. There are literally millions of lenses to choose from and cheap eg a 50 f1.4 or f1.7 (some of the best lenses ever made) can be purcased for under A$60 on EB.

"Pentax is the only manufacturer who has kept compatability with every SLR lens they every made"

Not relevant to decpi's search for a camera, but Leica's earliest reflex lenses are fully compatible with the current R9 with digital back, no adapters required. The metering connections have changed a couple of times over the years but the oldest lenses can be updated to work perfectly on the current bodies.

Yes, but the lenses, like some early Nikon ones, need modification.

The Pentax lenses need no modification and it's pretty much the best backwards compatibility that there is.

If stop-down metering is acceptable (as it seems for many users of Takumars) then the earliest Leica-R lenses need no modifications or adapters whatsoever to work on the current bodies.

Takumar lenses are a different mount to the bayomnet Pentax series, and therefore need an adapter. They still maintain infinity focus and are quite useable. The first K and M series bayonet lenses work using stop down metering. From the A series onwards the lenses are fully compatible electronically.

Personally I prefer to use A series lenses and later for the convenience of full compatibility with exposure modes. Some photographers have favourite older lenses that they want to keep using.

Whatever you choose there are lots of lenses out there to choose from!

With this buget, you can have a Canon 5D, 50mm f/1.4, 70~200 F4L.