Something to keep in mind, I have seen thousands of photos of the Grand Canyon and nothing compares to being there in person. Definitely take your wide-angle lens. A long lens will let you get shots across the canyon and details closer by. Enjoy and take some great pictures!

I purchased the Pentax 18-270 zoom lens with my Pentax K5-II body. So, this was my first lens for that camera. I have since purchased two more lenses. I find the lens to be very nice, although I wish it was weather resistant, like my other lenses. The auto-focus mechanism is slightly different from some of the other Pentax lenses out there and, hence, is a little slower and noisier, albeit not by much. For its zoom range, it is pretty compact. Its weight is about average for its size.

It may have been manufactured by someone other than Pentax, but, it has the quality and focus/zoom rings working directions of all the older Pentax lenses I have owned over the years. That makes a difference to me because I am used to manually turning lens aperture, focus and zoom rings in certain directions, so I don't have to think about which lens I'm using at the time.

If you can get a good price for the Pentax lens (or any lens you want, for that matter) buy it.

Great, on both your parts! Nice gesture from you and an appreciation from him.

The only issue with spot metering is what Ansel Adams described in his Zone System, that an exposure meter or camera wants to meter like an 18% gray card. So, you have to be aware of the value of the area you target with the spot meter. I use spot, when appropriate and matrix most of the other time. I very seldom use center-weighted metering. My camera does a very good job of averaging the scene, to get a pretty good image every time. The exceptions, of course, are backlit and very contrasted scenes, such as spotlighted stage photos.

Very nice!

Enjoy!

I love the turtle shot!

My vote is for Corel PaintShop Pro Ultimate 2019. It comes with AfterShot Pro 3, which works with RAW and other formats. It is not subscription-based -- only a one-time purchase. It will have everything you need and is relatively easy to learn, with a lot of training videos on-line.

Using my Pentax K5II I only have one card. I shoot both RAW and .jpg simultaneously. Hence, all photo files are in the same folder. I download all the files onto my hard disk, in my named folder. Windows will display both file types in its photo viewer, so I don't have to separate the photos by type. I, sometimes create a sub folder and put my RAW files in there. I can send the .jpg files out, immediately, and work on the RAW files for further processing, if necessary.

I agree with most comments, except for the size of the tablet. I think the medium size is just right. It works differently than a mouse, once you get use to it, especially trying to use menus. You have to learn to lift the pen before selecting a menu, otherwise you draw on the tablet. A mouse doesn't allow for the same control while drawing. A tablet will take you a while to get use to it. The tablet works either connected directly to the computer or by Bluetooth. Mine works similar either way, except Bluetooth works on battery power, which means it only works for a while before the tablet has to be recharged.

I hope this helps.

I'll come into this discussion from a little different direction. My first, and only, DSLR is a Pentax K5 II. I have seven new and older Pentax lenses that I either bought recently or had from my old film camera. They all work with my new camera. The new lenses are zoom lenses and auto focus. The old lenses are just auto exposure, only one is a zoom lens.

I was starting to question the quality of my camera or the new zoom lenses. Most photos seemed not to be very sharp. The shots taken outdoors, in bright sunlight were pretty good. In not so perfect lighting conditions, my shots were substandard.

It took me a couple of years to figure out what was wrong. I always used ASA (ISO) 100 film in the past. So, with my new DSLR I assumed that I should be shooting at ISO 100, too. My problem was that I was hand-holding a slow zoom lens at mid to maximum zoom length, at a slow ISO. Once I changed my ISO to 800 and above, my shots were crisp, with very little noise. My particular Pentax goes from ISO 80 to 51,200, so I was near the bottom of the ISO scale, anyway. Pentax promotes their DSLRs with high ISO and minimal noise, as a feature. It looks like that is the case for my camera.

So, in my case, a higher ISO solved my particular problem that I was having. A little noise in my photos was far better than having blurry photos.

Skyline Drive is not free. It use to be $15 for up to one week's concurrent visit. There are two lodges on that 110 mile section. We have only done that section once.

On the Blue Ridge Parkway, there are the Peaks of Otter and Pisgah Inn to stay right on the parkway. The Peaks of Otter is okay, overlooking a lake, and it has a restaurant on site. Rooms are a little rustic so don't expect too much. Pisgah Inn is different and, also, has a nice restaurant. The rooms overlook mountains and a valley. The rooms are a little nicer.

There are very few gas stations right on the parkway. So, plan ahead. Make sure you get a map and a listing of facilities before you leave, otherwise you might run out of gas. A beautiful sight is Mabry Mill. It has a small restaurant and gift shop on the premises. You could spend a few hours there, taking photos and eating at the restaurant. Try their pancakes. They are great!

Mount Mitchell is six miles up a mountain off the parkway. It is the highest point east of the Mississippi River. Every time we have driven up there it was foggy. Never saw vistas from there. However, if it isn't foggy or raining, it should be worthwhile visiting.

A few side trips are: Ashville, NC, including the Biltmore Estates. If you like railroad museums, Roanoke, VA has a few very good ones. There are the Virginia Transportation Museum and Norfolk and Western Museum. President Jefferson's Monticello is close by Charlottesville, VA.

The maximum speed on Skyline Drive is 35 mph and on the Blue Ridge Parkway it is 45 mph. You could drive the Parkway in three days if you stay only on the Parkway. Both spring, around June, and the fall are good times to see nature and take photos. There are, literally, hundreds of pull-offs on the way. Each one has beautiful views.

Plan your trip and have a good time.

😂😂😂😂😂

If you need royalty-free music and want to be able to completely edit/customize the music for length and composition, I use Smartsound. It has over 4000 selections to purchase. You need their software application called SonicFire Pro, to get started. I love the whole package. Well thought out.

www.smartsound.com

I assumed the model was a typo. I haven't heard of a Pentax K-S2.

I have a Pentax K-5 II and three new zoom lenses. I chose Pentax because I have always owned Pentax film cameras and have three older fixed and zoom lenses. They all work on my K-5 II because of the lens mount and internal image stabilization. My older lenses have to be used in manual or semi-automatic mode and are not auto-focas, but, they work. I love my Pentax.

What I don't like about my Pentax is the back view screen is not useful for video since it doesn't swivel, so I have to hold the camera at eye-level all the time. In addition, you have to move the mode knob to go from stills to video, instead of just a button, like some cameras have.

I shoot both RAW and jpeg simultaneously, for quick preview and sharing, and then have RAW for editing, if I need to do post-processing.

The weather resistant camera and some of their lenses come in handy when you are caught in bad weather. I was in Canada shooting in very misty conditions and that feature came in real handy.

I think you will be very satisfied with your decision.

The last link insinuates that it is a Google Maps issue, related to old software. I still think you should upgrade to Paintshop Pro Ultimate 2019.