Penax DA 16-85 v Ltd primes

I have indulged in a spot of pixel peeping in trying to assess how good the 16-85 is as compared to my 15, 21, 35 and 70 Ltds.  I set up my tripod in the garden today and shot my house and garden using 100 ISO  and F5.6 and then tried to assess the results at 100% on my PC.

Of course I could not exactly replicate the DA 15mm but the 16-85  at 16mm seemed to perform better across the frame but sharpness in the centre was much the same.  It was pretty much the same story with the DA 21mm.  If anything the DA35mm macro was a tad sharper but there was not a lot in it.  The DA70 is however noticeably sharper overall than the 16-85 but I think that the DA 70 is an exceptionally fine lens.  I think I may now need to repeat the same process stopping down a bit further to see how that turns out.

The purpose of my efforts is to determine what lens combination to take on my forthcoming trip to the USA.  My preliminary conclusion is that  a two lens kit of the 16-85 and 55-300 would meet almost all eventualities without very much lens changing.  The joy of using the primes lies for me in the much lower weight of the camera and the general handling of it.  I also feel that primes encourage a more considered approach to a subject, so I am not likely to part with them, however good the 16-85 may be. I am, however,  surprised just how little difference there is in IQ between the first 3 ltds and the 16-85 zoom.  The DA 70 is another story and I must really try to use it more than I do.