I've had a DA 17 -70mm on my k-5 II for a few years now and it takes excellent photos. However, about three years ago it developed a problem where it wouldn't focus when it was zoomed in from about 45mm to 70mm. As soon as you zoom back out the AF works, but by this time you had generally missed the shot. I sent it away to Johnsons Photopia and it came back working. It has continued to work for about 18 months but it has now developed the same problem again. My DA 55 - 300mm works absolutely fine so I am assuming it is the lens. I have cleaned all the contacts thoroughly and updated the firmware but there is no improvement. I am reluctant to spent another £200 on this lens as it will go along way towards a new one. Before I take the plunge I thought it would be worth asking the question if anyone else had had this problem and found a simple solution to it?

Thank you for all your interesting comments. I don't think there is anything wrong with my lens as such. The images are the same if I use manual focus or AF. Also at F8 the images are alright but that's what they are, alright not WOW! Looking at the price of a body only and the kit, the lens cost £70 so I can't expect too much and I should have cottoned on to that before I bought. It is possible that I have one not so good and I might talk to SRS where it came from and see what they say. I think my point was that it is a shame that such a good camera is sold with a very average lens in the first place and not at least as good as lenses that are many years old.

I thought I was doing the right thing when I bought a K5 II early this year with the 18 - 55mm kit lens. I have several 30 year old lens which I thought might be useful until I could afford something better. What I wasn't expecting was for old lenses to be much sharper than the new lens I had just bought! I have also bought a cheap F 35 - 70mm off Ebay and that knocks the socks off the kit lens too. Just seen an 18 - 55mm wr make £45 on Ebay so I suppose that says it all. It's very disappointing that such a good camera is sold with a poor lens. I am now reluctant to use the kit lens so it too will probably find its self on Ebay and I will have to save up for a DA 17-70mm as that sounds like a good lens that hopefully I won't be disappointed with? Unless of course I get a bad one?

Thanks very much works a treat when you know how

Just getting to grips with my camera, does anyone know if it is possible to zoom in on live view to check focusing? I can't find anything in the instructions and it would be really useful for macro work.

I did have to add a bit to it, like the wedding ring from the previous marriage that also got pinched and funny but I didn't want to replace that

I had better stop lurking! I bought myself a K5 II out of insurance money after having my old compact pinched in a burglary. They did me a favour on this one anyway, as a new camera was way down the budget list. Like many others I had many happy years with an ME super. I have already picked up some useful info on this site so I hope to get a bit more involved. Mike