100% agree.....

and moving the subject sideways slightly, lovely though the Merlin marks sound I don't think anything beats the sound of a Griffon Spitfire at full bore

Nice images Rob

As part of my thrice weekly scan around the forum I stumble over this excellent set of images, it comes as no surprise they are yours Andrew.

All full of texture and interesting perspectives, lovely work

Seems you have been thinking about the DA*16-50 for some while Stefan

I liked mine despite it's slight shortcomings, a nice lens to use and in the sweet spot really very good.
I didn't own the Sigma 17-50 so can't comment there. I would only add that I would prefer to have the 16mm verses 17mm

Maybe sample variation and perhaps they perform slightly differently on other mounts?

Hello Rich,

No need to worry, that is quite normal for the DFA 100 f/2.8 macro.

+6 Give the Oly a go I'm certain you will enjoy it

My experience was that you will notice the most difference with screw driven focus lenses, they felt quite a bit quicker on the K-7 compared to the K20D.
The SDM driven DA*s don't appear to benefit much, which is a shame. I'm sure Pentax will be working hard in this area for the K-7 replacement.

I agree with Stefan, I'm sure it's not all down to motors.... but in this case is does rather point that way because of screw drive improvement.
Again in my experience ring type focus motors do show a clean pair of heals to geared micro-motor types and without accuracy suffering.

Still I wouldn't dwell to much on focus speed, the K-7 has many other virtues which for me made it a step up from the K20D.

Stefan, the Nikon screen is basically a copy of the Fuji S9000 bridge implementation some years back now. A good effort but the Oly version is much more flexible.

Hi Jon, pleased to be here (still :wink.
Regarding size of body verses articulated screen, I would now go for a slightly larger body with the benefit of added screen flexibility.
I must admit I wasn't convinced never having had the opportunity to use one before but now I find I am using it a great deal, it really is a big plus especially for macro work.

I can vouch for a swivel screen being very useful for macro when teamed up with a well implemented live view

The swivel screen can certainly be made to be pretty robust, I wouldn't have any worries about breaking it off. The danger of damage is far outweighed by it's usefulness.
The next Pentax should have this feature.