Upgrading from a Tamron 18-200 (K-30)

I have a Tamron 18-200 on my K-30 as an all-purpose lens. Although I have no complaints for the money it cost, I can now afford to do better !

The £300-£350 price point has a few options:

The Pentax 18-135WR is available at SRS unboxed at £325, I can keep my superzoom range (and extend it) with the Sigma 18-250 at £319 or I can get a faster lens in the Sigma 17-70 at £349 if I give up some reach (and buy a 55-300 later).

Apart from the obvious gains in IQ with any of the lenses above, the biggest problem with the Tamron is the noise and fuss it makes when focussing - and any of the choices above cover that one happily.

Advice so far points to the Pentax 18-135 - but any thoughts or comments from knowledgeable people here ?

TIA

Hi Terry, I'm not the biggest fan of zooms but I have to admit to being surprised at how good an all-rounder the Pentax 18-135 is. If you add in the fact that it's WR, then assuming you don't need the extra reach (that you've had previously) I think it's probably the best choice - Although I don't have experience of the 2 Sigmas, so can't comment directly on them

It also focuses very quickly and quietly - and it works quite well with my Teleplus Pz-AF SHQ 1.5X converter to give a bit more reach. Unfortunately that means that the 55-300 Pentax usually stays at home nowadays.

I was fortunate to have the Pentax 18-135mm and Sigma 18-250 HSM at the same time and did some non scientific testing with both at the same time, my feeling was that I'd really appreciate the extra reach on a walk around but for me the 18-135 handles much better and is smaller. The 18-135 is not much bigger than the 18-55mm kit lens and for me makes it very easy to carry around, as well as being WR and quiet focusing. With these types of lenses there are compromises with image quality but I'm generally happy with the images I get, but it is slow at the longer end.
Someone wanting one of these lenses for indoor use would be better off with a faster wider zoom such as a 17-70 f2.8 but I can recommend the 18-135mm as an outdoor walk around.
I've had a 55-300mm too and I've sold that, AF was slow and hunted a lot and I was very disappointed with image quality at the long end, I think the new HD lens has at least the opportunity to improve on the original performance. So may be an option.