SRS seems to have reasonable stock levels although last time I went, no 12-24, no 40mm and no 50-135 and I am expecting a call from them when they get some in stock which should be a week to 10 days.

So at least some popular stuff seem to be a bit hard to get.

Consider the Tamron too, was a really good lens on my Nikon and gives you a slightly more versatile 24mm on the tele side of things. Was a bit soft on the corners at 10mm though.

I am all torn between the 8-16 and the 10-24 ....

Hm the K-5 was focusing without a problem both near and far.

What you describe was extremely evident on my D40+10-24 I think it has a lot to do with the sophistication of the AF system + UWA. Put the same lens on the D7000 it was focusing perfectly accurately and fast on D40 it could struggle to acquire focus anywhere beyond 6-7 feet. The 12-24 though did not have the same problem.

I think my tests were a bit flawed though, for starters there were quite strong winds so the subjects could have been shaking a bit also I realised half way through that I was shooting at f20 - dont ask why.

I will wait for their call though to see if the 12-24 comes in stock and go have another round of tests when it does.

Hm could it have been the copy I tried then? or maybe it was me cause the Tamron got the same kinda fuzziness...

Committed to my swap over to Pentax I tried the above lens - and also the 10-24 Tamron which I used to own on my Nikon at SRS earlier today and to my surprise the images were soft. From both of them... So I left them for the time being until I can try a 12-24 Pentax see if it is any different but could you share your experiences with the 8-16?

Thanks!

It does, a bit of an awkward naming for the feature thanks both of you!

Forgive my ignorance but I haven't had even time to read through my K-5 manual yesterday so I don't even know the technical difference of the above two options. I will do that later today.

The actual question I'd like to ask though is, is there a visible material difference between the two? Do you all use it? I am wondering cause I do my image processing through a two year old MBP which was struggling with the RAW files from the D40, I am worried the RAW files of a K-5 are going to be exponentially more challenging and feeding them even bigger ones in the form of RAW+ is something that I wouldn't mind avoiding if there is no much benefit to them.

Thanks a lot !

K-5 battery from almost flat to full charge 4 or so hours for me

Exactly my feeling. Got the K-5 today with the kit lens with the intention of selling the kit lens as I have done before cause though the Nikon kits performed reasonably well they just felt far to cheap, heck I was not all that happy with the built quality of the 12-24 Nikkor I used for a few weeks and that was a £600 lens.

However the Pentax kit lens feels much nicer, very pleasing materials and smooth operation. Not selling it any more I don't think especially given the going prices. I will just keep it to have a zoom for the gap 16-50 in case I find the primes a bit restrictive.

BTW quite surprised how nice the kit lens actually feels. Neither the 18-55 nor the 18-105 that I had for a short period on my Nikon felt as nice as this kit lens... A lot more solid and smooth and a lot less cheap plastic. I was all set to sell it straight away but no point given the price and how nice it feels.