K-7 LCD screen stuck pixel

I have only had the K7 for 3 weeks and am a bit sore at missing the £250 cash back deal ! However it's a great camera and the water resistance makes shooting in the rain much more spontaneous, although the WR lens is a bit of a let down.

Welcome to the forum John

What problems are you having with the WR? Is it the 18-55 or 50-200? If it's the 18-55, in my experience it does need stopping down for best performance. Even so it can be a little soft at the edges. Factoring in the cost, it's not bad but not great either. See here for a recent discussion on the merits of Pentax kit lenses (and others).

Exactly as you say - it's the WR 18-55 that came with the K7. I already had an 18-55 with my DS and it seems noticeably better, albeit not exactly in laboratory conditions.

I haven't yet tried the other AF or MF or evem M42 lenses in my collection.

Is a high quality 16-45 WR available ?

Might the DA* 16-50 do, it's a f/2.8 if that makes it more tempting?
If not the 17-70 is some what the replacement of the 16-45 and the DA 17-70 has some sealing (lens mount at least) but isn't weather proof though.

It would surely be interesting to see more WR lenses from Pentax.

As Stefan says the "high quality 16-45 WR" would be the DA* 16-50 f/2.8 quite a different animal to the 18-55.
Much more costly but built like a tank (also not exactly compact). However in the f/5.6 to f/11 (approximate) sweet spot the resolution achievable is very good indeed. f/2.8 is usable too but soft at the edges, fine for it's likely use at that aperture.

In conclusion a very nice lens but not the best wide angle to short telephoto zoom on the market

Greytop, how do you find the DA*16-50.
I find it quite a lot of money for the image quality it delivers, although the build quality seems very good.
my eye is now on the tammy 17-50...
Could you maybe temp me from the darkside with some photo's wide open?
Would be interested to see how the bokeh is.

Expensive yes, but it does resolve amazing levels of detail for a zoom at the right aperture.

Here are a couple of f/2.8 examples for you taken at the weekend..
Note the first one could have done with around f/4

[IMG]http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/6629/imgp4542g.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/1570/imgp4525.jpg[/IMG]

All I can say is that I like it and I wouldn't sell it in a hurry but it's not as good as my old ED 12-60 SWD

Thank you Greytop, I really love the pentax for the colours and contrast they produce.

The first photo looks very nice the second one also but the Bokeh seems to be of the not so pleasing kind.
Could you please make a 1:1 pixel crop of the tree in the lower left corner?

Yes it does look a bit busy there I agree, does depend on focal length and how closeness and type background. Here is the 100% crop of the bottom left corner...

[IMG]http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/7218/imgp4525100percentcrop.jpg[/IMG]

Thank you Greytop, the Bokeh looks very good though for a zoom. You've sparkle my interests again for the lens... now I only need some money.

The out of focus blur can look very busy if the bokeh looks like a doughnut.
The brighter edges cross each other and therefore doesn't look so good.

These look quite evenly bright so it's mediocre so to say.

Smooth out of focus blur is made out of bokeh that are darker at the edges so they look like soft dots.

Since everything comes with a compromise it's good to see it preforms mediocre, meaning that other aspects of the lens are good without compromising the bokeh so the lens is probably finely balanced.

Wow, I just sound like an expert that I'm really not.

It's the water resistance that I value - and it looks as though the only WR lenses that fit are the 16-55 and the 50-200. Is that right ?

Again for spontaneity I want to be able to carry the camera in my hand which is ok with the 16-55 but a little cumbersome with say the Tamron 18-250. The old PK 40mm f2.8 fits well if I abandon some of the automatic features.

Hi John, no not just the 18-55 & 50-200 WR's, for higher quality water and dust resistant lenses have a look at the Pentax DA* range which includes primes and zooms. Some examples from a DA* 16-50 are pictured above.

Thanks.

Do the DA* range have a compatible lend / body seal too ?

Absolutely