Samsung Pentax lens advice please

Hi Folks
Looks like I may soon be the proud owner of a K10. The shop also has a Samsung 50-200 lens available. They are willing to sell this for £100 instead of usual £150 (so they say).
How does this lens compare with either of the Sigma 70-300s? The vanilla one being about £100 the APO version £150.

As an after thought, I can purchase a Mk2 18-55 for £15 more than the Mk1 - is it worth it?
Many thanks for all your valued comments,
Nick.

The 50-200mm is a great lens, compact and with excellent image quality. I would prfer it to any Sigma any day.

The Mk II 18-55mm is better than the Mk I. For £15 I would think you might as well have it as it will be much better suited for when you eventually (maybe) upgrade to the K20D and beyond.

Thanks for that John. Do you know - is the lens a Pentax badged as a Samsung or all all Pentax lenses made by Samsung(as I have been led to believe)?

How is £100 for price? I have not been able to find anyone selling this Samsung lens to compare. Or should I be pricing it against a Pentax 70-200?

Samsung digital lenses are made at the Pentax factories in Vietnam. They are more likely to be designed in cooperation with Tokina, which is also owned by Hoya. I presume the Schneider name is used on the Samsung cameras under licence from Schneider but the lenses are Pentax lenses.

I saw a review of the Tokina 12-24mm zoom. Is this just a variant of the Pentax lens? The 'change to manual focus' is different (pull the focusing ring towards you) but it is an constant F4. No cheaper than the Pentax one though.

Cheers, Kris.

SRS have the Pentax 50-200 @ £85 with freepost to forum contributers:

www.srsmicrosystems.co.uk/125/Pentax-smc-DA-50-200-mm-F4-5-6-ED-Lens.html

Yes it is worth paying £15 extra for the 18-55 II.

It's the same optical formula but the mechanics, cosmetics and coatings are quite different. I believe it was another joint Pentax/Tokina development like the DA* zooms, the DA10-17 and the DA35 Limited.