Yes I know the lens is fine but IQ isn't stellar but certainly good and very good if you know how to use it.
The problem is that the Tamron 17-50 does look to preform better then the DA*16-50 but it is half the prize, that's where the lens puts me a bit off...

If you find Photozone accurate then you should compare it with the Tamron 17-50.
There is no test in Pentax mount so Nikon has to do link

It's so hard to say what's wrong over the internet without being able to test the camera.

It looks like user error here, although if you say that it also does this with Av & Tv it makes me wonder.
The metering and handling shouldn't be far off from the K100D.
The Canon 450D expose (different metering and software) a bit differently so you shouldn't compare it to that if you're very critical.

Have you tried the same shot with different settings, if so how were those?

Aki you didn't use much PP but the trees in the foreground just look very strange.
To be honest I don't like it that much but that's of course a personal taste so don't be discourage by it, you can't please everyone.

Yes you're right about that but the strange thing is it does have an installation instructions for PSE 7, so that's where it lost me.

Melness you linked it a bit wrong.
You should go to the image and copy the IMG code

[IMG]http://i860.photobucket.com/albums/ab168/mxfun10/imgp6807.jpg[/IMG]

From what I can tell from the EXIF you use manual mode, so could it be an user error?
What settings you use is all up to you in manual mode, your exposure values where simply to high.

Interesting story Mike, glad the lens has found his way back to the camera.

The lens is very well made but like Huw says it isn't stellar in terms of IQ, which is a real shame
I don't have the lens but it seems the wide end of it isn't super right?

I would also love to see the non HDR.

I like #2 the most and #1 is very close behind it but I also like the B&W of this but think colour is better for this photo.
Of the B&W I like the tones of #5 but now that I look at it I think I should brighten it slightly to so that it comes closer to #6.

Since there was a topic about photoshop.

#5 took the most work, it's a duo-tone with a curve in the tone but #3 has the most layers around 11 so out of my head.

#2 is what I normally do and that has 8 layers, that is with 3 adjustments layers.

Thank you Huw, that's a fair point and we can't argue about taste can we?

Version 5.6 is also out but ain't 100% sure it works on PSE 7 but it looks like it though.

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4626

Huw may I ask you why?

It seems the choice for the B&W differs very much per person, so would like to know a bit more.