Photozone review of the HD DA 16-85

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Thank you for your generous and inspiring comments! I find it especially interesting to read about your preferances regarding colour vs B&W images.

Wonderfully adventurous set. My current favourites are 1, 5, 7, 8, 11, 12

In August last year I went for a hike to the top of the mountain Storsola (1711 meters above sea level) in the Sylan mountainous plateau, which is situated north-east of Trondheim on the border to Sweden. I was fortunate with the weather conditions and managed to take a lot of photos both with my K5 + DA 12-24 and the Pentax67ii. I love going for hikes in Sylan, and have a special affinity for the alpine mountains here. The climb to the summit of Storsola is quite demanding physically, the base of the mountain is about 1000 meters above sea level, so there is a 700 meters climb in height to the summit. I was carrying a backpack with my Pentax 67ii system and a Manfrotto 055 XProb tripod, weighing in total maybe 12 kg. So the climb was quite strenuous... But as long as some of the photos turned out okay, it was definitely worth the effort. I hope to do more climbs in this area in the future.

Pentax 67ii + SMC 105/2.4 and SMC 45/4 lenses + Fuji Provia 100F and Ilford SFX 200. Lab processed and scanned by myself on a Epson V750.

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Thank you again. One of the most important planned areas of usage for my 35mm film cameras is cold weather, and both my KX and MX are eminently suitable for such tasks. Maybe I should look for another KX instead of sending the K2 for a potentially very expensive CLA:

Thank you Chris! The ASA ring on my K2 is quite easy to move and adjust, but I agree that the design is best forgotten.

Do you know how the metal shutter in the K2 behaves in cold weather conditions. I have used both my 67ii and an MX in temperatures below minus 10 degrees celsius, and they perform faultlessly. Both of these cameras employ very robust cloth shutters, and are very reliable.

Thank you John! Eric Hendrickson in the USA could possibly be a person to contact. But, as you also point out, a CLA could end up quite costly. Here in Norway one even has to pay 25% tax of the repair done abroad. So this on top of postage to the USA, pluss the CLA itself - well I have to think about this.

I already have a KX that has been CLA'd at Harrow Technical and a fully working Spotmatic that I changed the light seals and mirror bumper on myself. I do not really need another 35mm film body, except that the K2 is such a beautiful camera. I wonder what it is like to shoot with one

Thank you both for good advice! I will most probably send my K2 off for a complete overhaul in the near future.

Last week I purchased a mint condition Pentax K2 for about GBP 20,- The reason for the low price was that the shutter is not working, or more precisely it is very slow and often gets stuck. The K2 is a beautiful camera, but the shutter design does seem a bit fragile. The cloth shutter in my Spotmatic or KX seems much more robust. In fact, the metal shutter makes me think twice about sending the K2 to Harrow Technical for a complete service (cla). I have previously used Harrow Tech for servicing my MX and KX, and know they do a wonderful job with Pentax film cameras. Do any of you have experience with the K2 and especially shutter reliability? Does it make sense to invest in a rather costly CLA for the K2?

I am grateful for any advice!

I spoke to a local bird-/wildlife photographer, who is also owner of a camera equipment shop, about the two new Pentax DFA lenses. He had heard that Ricoh/Pentax had employed several new optical engineers recently, with the aim of making even better camera lenses. He had really high hopes for these new lenses, and that with these Pentax could compete with similarly prices lenses from both Canon and Nikon. This photographer also believed the rather steep price for these DFA lenses had to do with the expansion of the lens engineer stock at Ricoh/Pentax.

Has anybody here heard about such developments within Ricoh/Pentax?