Nothing particularly great about these shots, just nice to see some sun and get the K20D out of its bag so thought I'd share it with you all. Taken on the way up Conwy mountain yesterday afternoon.

1st shot is with DA 12-24 (24mm) & 2nd is with my new DA 35mm F2.4

They do illustrate how quickly the light changes though - taken 10 minutes apart, the 2nd on reaching the top.

Simon

[IMG]http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e68/STKITCHIN/IMGP3634.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e68/STKITCHIN/IMGP3652.jpg[/IMG]

It's definitely the weather/lack of sunshine - I'm the same at the moment, haven't managed a landscape photo for 3 months. On the plus side the sun is shining here this morning so just on my way to Conwy to see if I get get started again!!

Simon

I see your deliberations continue, I have the same problem when looking for a new lens.

I don't have any experience of the 28-70 but what I'd say is that it doesn't really fulfull the "walkabout" criteria - the 16-45 and even moreso 17-70 focal ranges seem much better for that purpose.

Just for info I owned the Sigma 17-70 (first version) and it's excellent, many of my photos are taken with it. For sharpness it's equal to the Pentax and it actually has slightly less distortion at the wide end - the Pentax has the advantage when it comes to colour/contrast and I find since replacing my sigma with one that the images have a nicer "out-of-camera" look about them. I don't hesitate to recommend the Sigma though

Simon

Yes, the warranty is quite as good as it may sound at first....lots of bad customer feedback around on the web too - personally I wouldn't buy from them

http://www.camerabox.co.uk/FAQS.asp

always best to read the full details

From my experience the Tamron and Sigma both have compromises - the Sigma suffers no noticeable CA but is slightly soft beyond around 240mm, the Tamron is very sharp at all focal lengths (I think as good as the Pentax) but can suffer bad CA which isn't always easily removed in PP - I'll leave you to decide!!

Simon

Now the cashback has ended demand is likely to slow, my guess is prices will start to move downwards once that gets through to the Pentax sales dept - hope so anyway as I'll be buying in the next few months!!

Simon

If budget is limited then the Tamron 70-300 is excellent, very sharp at 300mm, you will probably need to contend with some CA though. If you don't mind spending a bit more then the DA/DAL 55-300mm gets my vote - I've had the Tamron, Sigma (APO) and now the Pentax and in my opinion it's the best "consumer" zoom available at the moment.

Simon

I visit the "other" forum from time to time but rarely post - mainly for the reason the OP mentions, it does seem to be quite negative. During my 3yrs of Pentax ownership I've never had a significant problem so I've nothing much to complain about - that's not to say that I wouldn't have complained about it otherwise!!

Simon

If you're not in any rush they do appear on here now & again, you should pick one up for somewhere around £400 with a bit of luck - brilliant lens BTW!!

Simon

I'm looking at calling in to Chirk castle here in North wales to catch the snowdrops - not quite spring but it's a bit of positive thinking in this bl**dy awful weather!!

Simon