What a bargain... this is my no.1 most used lens, so useful and sharp.

Simply stunning shots, what great 'pop', detail and jewel like colour. Nice one, DM!

4 & 6 too, that bit of red on the hand rails against all the grey makes the colour versions more interesting. No. 4 probably takes the crown for me.

These are interesting, Bill... keep going!

I'm really enjoying looking at Peter and Valda's galleries. I really like those ICM images that have little pinpoints or areas of highlight in them, which show up as furious white 'scratches' against the blurry background. They're very painterly, and I think doing them manually (rather than in software) contributes to that painterliness.

I think photography needs stuff like this, it's like a breath of fresh air.

The new 16-85mm is also WR, Louise.

Love those 'frozen raindrop' shots, especially the heron and the horse and jockey. There's something really special about them.

I found it decent. No problems with sharpness, no real negatives (other than it's heavy, ugly and loud!), but not a lens to rave about, as it's still only f4/5.6. If you want a lens to rave about, try the DA50-135mm

I also really like the Steichen. It has a really eerie but tranquil mood. This from Wikipedia:

//Steichen took the photograph in Mamaroneck, New York near the home of his friend, art critic Charles Caffin. The photo features a wooded area and pond, with moonlight appearing between the trees and reflecting on the pond. While the print appears to be a color photograph, the first true color photographic process, the autochrome process, was not available until 1907. Steichen created the impression of color by manually applying layers of light-sensitive gums to the paper. Only three known versions of the Pond—Moonlight are still in existence and, as a result of the hand-layering of the gums, each is unique. In addition to the auctioned print, the other two versions are held in museum collections. The extraordinary sale price of the print is, in part, attributable to its one-of-a-kind character and to its rarity.//

So...

- It's very beautiful (in my subjective opinion)
- It has importance within the history of photography
- It's finished by hand with great skill
- It's extremely rare / unique

Hence: $$$$$$

Exactly Bruce - if you want a flippy screen and onboard flash, you would buy a KS2.

If you were an aspiring landscape photographer, you probably couldn't care less about those things and the KS3ii would be a viable choice!

'Ping'.

Ah, my humble pie must be ready.

Well, yeah, that is a bit off putting for a lot of people (OTOH I've seen a lot of forum users declaring on board flash pointless, so they may like it)....

Funny how people are moaning about the lack of onboard flash, when there's absolutely no reason to suggest it won't have one. Anyway, I'm braced for the usual deluge of disparaging comments from owners of the previous model, who are either miffed that they aren't at the top of the Pentax tree any more, or genuinely think that Pentax should offer them an irresistible reason to upgrade every 18 months....