Yeah, I am of the opinion that Pentax missed an opportunity with the change from SMC to HD DA Limiteds - they should have added WR and in-lens focus motors to bring these lenses into the modern photographic world.

The only WR DA Limited is the 20-40mm, none of the primes are seled at all.

Wow, that's terrible, some very nice gear to lose in that way.

Do you have the serial numbers and have you reported the theft? I believe there are online services which can track camera usage by detecting the serial numbers in EXIF data of uploaded images, it might be worth a look into. You might also try Gumtree (just had a look there - didn't see anything) or look into pawn shops in the area.

#1

#2 the vignette is far too heavy and a vignette on this type of photo I think is unlikley to work anyway
#3 a sunset without colour seems very odd indeed and leaves just a photo of some rocks

Not meaning to take this off topic but the alternative portrait length Pentax lens for APS-C is the DA 70mm Limited. It's an excellent lens and doesn't have SDM to fail, it uses the old screw-drive AF method.

Keeping up with kids usuing manual focus is tough so I would return it. Whether or not the AF on a fully-functional DA* 55mm is good enough to keep up with kids is another matter - I've heard AF is slow but have never tried it. Given that the AF on a working one is likely to fail before long, is getting one a good idea at all?

Those are good lenses so I'd say you should keep them and use them. I owned a Tamron 17-50/2.8 for a few years, bought new, and I only sold it when I managed to get a used Sigma 17-50/2.8 which I liked more. The Sigma didn't really take nicer pictures but it had a quiet built-in AF motor and was more solidly built, but the Tamron is a very nice lens and very capable.

You don't always need AF lenses to take pictures of your kids - you can take pictures of them in more reflective moments when they're still - watching TV, reading, playing.

Now that's commitment to film.

When I had one I felt that one of the strengths of the 20-40mm was in capturing subtleties of colour and light and thereby making otherwise unremarkable scenes look interesting. Without meaning to offend, I would regard the processing here as heavy-handed and likely to remove any such subtleties so that would obscure one of the main strengths of the lens.

250 for that lens is a real bargain - the 20-40mm is the lens I miss the most of those I've sold even though I didn't own it for long and my copy had some front/back focus problems (which you should check for on your copy).

It's not particularly fast but image quality is stellar and it's the closest I've ever felt to the experience of using a prime when in fact it's a zoom.