In case it helps anyone make up their mind.....I recently aquired the older "K" version of this lens, and have been impressed with it's performance on digital. Much better than the user reviews suggested.

Just adding to this.......

1. I found a way to get PSE to produce a soft-proof image........ http://elementsplus.net/ for the princely sum of $12 you get a number of functions "enabled" in PSE one of which is the soft-proof utility. However the prints come out much better than how they look on screen in the soft-proof

2. I calibrated my monitor with a Spyder5. The difference is remarkable. Quite a yellow/green cast was apparent before caliration which of course I was not noticing as I had got used to it.

3. I had a number of test prints done by DSCL both using a standard sRGB profile and a specific DSCL paper/printer profile. I could not tell the difference, so am sending them sRGB profiled files ! I guess if was working in AdobeRGB it may have done.

4. From the prints I have had DSCL do so far i find that increasing exposure by half a stop (from what looks good on screen/histogram) during RAW conversion is the giving me excellent prints of the correct brightness.

5. For onscreen viewing I generally use a USM setting of 40-80/0.6/1 For printing the size of a 10x8 print i am finding that a general setting 120/1.2/2 gives me an equivalent print sharpness.

I hope this is useful. I am very happy with the quality I am seeing from DSCL and the service is excellent. As a previous poster said, if you get your files to them in the morning you will have your prints delivered the following day. The cost of a 10x8 print is about 50p, so no complaints there.

If I pair my K1 to the imagestnc app wirelessly can i review pictures on my ipad ?

Nice work....especially your framing.

Another one from my recent visit to the wildlife centre. This Muntjac was in the bottom of the red squirrel enclosure and as such the light was filtered by the extensive foliage giving it a softer quality and creating large shadow areas too. I like the effect it has created.

I was using the Pentax D-FA 150-450 zoom on it's first outing and I am very happy with it's performance. One of the features I found very useful was being able to assign the buttons on the lens barrel to cancel autofocus. So when using AFC-continous autofocus and wanting to "focus and recompose", I was able to do this instantly without having to change AF mode on the camera.

Also impressed with the K1 3200 ISO ability

The keeper said she had worked with the three wildcats for three years, so they were well used to her. But if she approaches anywhere near them they hiss and go into defence mode. Less than 100 left in the wild sad to say.

I saw the details of the photodays, i think I will be signing up for one of those. Did you see any red squirrels when you were there? They seemed to be hiding from me.

Yes the first two for me. Something a bit eerie about a disused line, but maybe thats just me.

I like the first on...would look great printed out large

Very characterful portrait, and a very nice story too.