Long story short, I bought a Canon Rebel (Not XT). Seems very well made and a pleasure to handle and less expensive than the PENTAX. I guess I could of waited till he had one in stock but being new at this, Im sure either would have made me happy.
Justifying the purchase of a somewhat expensive camera to the wife was much easier than any audio purchse :^) Took some pictures of my sons graduation yesterday. Downloaded to pics into the computer and made a slideshow of the event and later burned a copy onto a disk and view it on the TV. Printed a few pics right off the printer. Amazing :^)
I guess now I should be considering upgrading the lens? :^)