Need some ideas for a nikon (or pentax) dslr setup?

I've been interested in investing in a new setup for a while so after my 30D died on me i pounced on the chance. I only had 1 lens on my 30D, which i will just use on my old Rebel.

I'm stuck on choosing between a Pentax camera or a Nikon because of their wide amount of lenses and their backwards compatibility with old lenses. The downside with Pentax is there's no Full Framer camera to grow into but at least i know what i'm looking for with a pentax. I have heard alot of good things about Nikon but my knowledge is almost zip lol. I'm currently trying to catch up with my research but this may take a while.

My budget is a little unclear at the moment somewhere between 500-$700 currently. I would be buying used on ebay. I have been eyeballing the K-x with a pentax 18-35mm FAJ AL ( i already own a couple adatall lenses for either nikon or pentax). Still undecided on a nikon body or lenses to go with it though so i will take any suggestions

If you want to use old manual focus lenses on nikon and want to use the camera's light meter you will need a d7000, D200 or D300 or better.

If you are moving from Canon, head for Nikon. It is the "other" professional system

Here are some links you may find helpful.

http://imaging.nikon.com/...d_know/en/

http://imaging.nikon.com/.../index.htm

My whole Nikon system is populated with Nikkor lenses. One that was built in 1970 and still works flawlessly. I wouldn't think of buying a Non-Nikon lens unless it was ONLY available from a third party lens maker.

Lightroom 3 can tether with certain Nikon bodies, it can't tether with Pentax bodies. As you do your research, you will find other unique features about Nikon that places them well ahead of most other camera systems.

This was my basic Pentax set up for everyday use:

http://www.suite101.com/content/how-to-choose-dslr-lenses-for-the-camera-bag-a346749

I have since started using the Pentax K-5 and it is awesome in low light, and the 18-55 got sold and its place in the bag is currently occupied by a Tamron 28-80mm SP zoom with an adaptall mount.

The Tamron works nicely with the green button manual exposure system,. Press the green button and the camera sets the shutter speed in manual mode.

Of course it is manual focus, but the auto system still confirms when it thinks you have correctly manually focussed the lens.