cosmetics aside - it's THE lens to have...good luck with the sale

+2 the money from the Kenko might've been spent on that and would've defeated the objective of selling the Kenko in the first place..

Now I need someone to buy my Nikkor TC

I haven't bothered reading the review, but as a D3 owner (with a mere 12MP) the Nikkor FX chip (whether 12, 24 or 36MP) demands a significant investment in lenses, each costing £1200+ (except the AF-S 50 1.4G) so to go from one system to another requires significant investment.

As a K-5 + 3xDA* owner I know that the significant investment in Nikkor glass doesn't automatically improve your photos - photos I have taken with the 16-50 and 60-250 and 300 outshine those taken with the 24-120, 70-200 VR1 and 300f4..

Go West - Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway might be running late trains

welcome from another North Walian, but I now live in leafy Surrey, family is from Ruthin/Denbigh area - whereabouts are you Eric?

Difficult to put a value on this lens as it's an inexpensice kit lens, and I have seen ridiculous prices charged for it. Many will say it's too good for it's monetary price, but the fact is that if you come to trade it in you will get very, very little for it.

Just look to see what the price differential between camera + 18-55 and camera + 18-55/50-200, then you'll get a good idea

Peter

I've had 2 SDM failures on my DA* lenses but I was surprised to find a failure on a more recent product. I had a failure on my 60-250, which was thought to be immune from the problems, SRS were even surprised....but for what you pay for the 17-70 I think the 16-50 is worth the extra.

Yes, I do have a saab, on number 3 now. My 2nd was a 9-3 and I know of all the problems especially on the diseasels (a common diseasel problem) and broken springs (another common problem on newer cars), poor trim but mine was completely reliable. The 9-5 has issues with sludge,rectified for later models, I have a more recent top of the line variant which I wouldn't want to swap for anything else....

Call me, with my K-5 and 9-5 the ultimate materialistic Pentax and Saab fanboy

If you get no luck Mike then I could offer you the Kenko you sold me last year, the 150-500 has made it rather surplus to use....

no No no No No No No...

I have only one recommendation, if you're going to splash the cash - get the best - the DA*16-50.

Yes, it might have it's issues, my SDM did fail - but it came back from JPS absolutely perfect - so much that all my other mid-range zooms were sold and I'm just left with the DA*. It is such a solid performer.

When the lens was at JPS I nearly bought a DA17-70 from Jessops - AF on the copy I looked at failed out of the box...

Kyoto is the old capital, gold and silver pavilions, etc. at least 2 days worth there. Osaka reachable by Shinkansen, Himeji-Ju where they filmed You Only Live Twice is nearby in Kobe Bay.