Not sure I can match any of those, but I tend to use my 55-300 quite a lot to pick out action (ports and harbours are a favourite), bring parts of the landscape closer (often coastal walking etc), and focus on architectural detail. Admittedly it doesn't get as much use as my standard zooms, but I wouldn't be without it.

I bought a K5IIs in January and expect to be keeping it for several years yet before replacing it, regardless of what Pentax bring out next.

What I expect will be provided and would like to see are some improvements to autofocus and low-light capability (I have no real complaints about my K5, but further improvement is always welcome).

I'd also like a split-prism focusing screen as a no-cost alternative and full backwards compatibility with manual lenses (i.e. a 'non-crippled' K-mount) - but don't expect to see those!

I had a KatzEye screen (split prism and ring) for my K20 and it functioned very well apart from affecting metering on one of the modes (I forget which). With the K5 I trust the autofocus more, so have kept the original screen; on the rare occasions when I focus manually it seems easier than with the K20's original screen.

Regards,
Stan

As a PS, I eventually sold the 16-45 as there didn't seem to be any real advantage in having both that and the 17-70. Unexpectedly I'm using the 24-90 more than the 17-70; looking back over the past year, just over half my shots were with the 24-90, a third with 17-70, and about 10% with 55-300 apart from a very few with A-series primes.

A DA* 16-85 would be interesting, though I wouldn't be rushing out to buy one straight away.

I think my maximum was about 200, from a day walking around Dartmouth and Kingswear.

On average I discard about 10-20%, rarely more than 30% - it comes from growing up with a film SLR in the days when I couldn't afford much film/processing, so had to make each shot count. I would guess about 1 in 100-200 make it into the folder of 'really good shots' that I might print as 12x18s or thereabouts to frame.

The FA24-90 is my favourite walkabout/travel lens and I'm not sure what I'd replace it with either; another 24-90, probably. Optically I think it is slightly better than the DA17-70, which I use for city walkabout. I agree the lens body isn't brilliant (my copy is about on a par with the DA16-45, which I also used to own) but I've had mine 3 years now with no problems.

The Pentax lens 'road map' from a couple of years ago showed a DA* lens in the 18-85 range that was due out this year, but I've not seen any further reference to it and wonder if it has been dropped.

Mine's very similar, either the FA24-90 or DA17-70, plus sometimes the 55-300 on my belt. I particularly like the sharpness and colour of the 24-90 with my K5 so that tends to be my walkabout lens of choice unless I'm expecting to need the wider angle of the 17-70.

I switched from K20D to K5II earlier this year, and the shutter is much quieter. Nothing wrong with the K20D though, and personally I like the sound my ME Super makes!

I have a Katzeye screen on my K20, with the bright coating - expensive but makes manual focusing very easy. A downside is that it interferes with the metering - particularly on 'spot.'

Clearly though it is viable to produce smaller runs of large sensors at a suitably high price - otherwise cameras such as the 645D or Leica S2 wouldn't exist.

If 36x24 becomes a more common format on DSLRs, larger production runs will be enabled, logically leading to lower prices. Maybe the difference won't quite go down to be directly proportional to size, but it should be well below the factor of 20 that I remember being quoted a few years back.