Pentax 16-85mm US $200 instant savings at B&H

johnat60 wrote:

Mark Ransom wrote:

johnat60 wrote:

I took advantage of this deal and should have it today. Have a Sigma 17-50, 2.8 HSM, that I haven't been particularly happy with and was looking for a weather resistant walk around zoom. I guess we'll see?

I'm curious, why do you dislike the Sigma 17-50/2.8? Because I could really use a nice fast normal zoom, I've been tempted by the current offer. The 16-85 might be a nice lens, but it doesn't give me any capabilities my 18-55 + DA 15 + Tamron 24-135 don't already offer.

It could be just my copy of the lens, but I found it not a sharp as I had hoped for especially on the edges. I'm not a lens expert and I 'm certainly not capable of really doing a decent evaluation. It's just a perception. Could be I'm just not a good enough photographer to use it. It's possible I'm using that as justification to get a walk around weather resistant lens which I currently don't have.

You should investigate exactly what the issue is, because that is not the prevailing opinion. I cut and pasted this summary from a bunch of sites for a previous post:

LensTip conclusion: Reading our test you can see very clearly that the Sigma entered the segment of more expensive fast zoom lenses, aimed at ambitious amateur photographers or even professionals working with smaller sensors, very aggressively indeed. The performance of the tested lens is sometimes really impressive. In the frame centre the Sigma behaves better than more expensive constructions of Canon and Nikon. At the edge it is worse than the Nikkor but it can compete on equal terms with the Canon. In fact it doesn’t lag behind the competitors in any category and in some it fares definitely better.

http://www.lenstip.com/256.11-Lens_review-Sigma_17-50_mm_f_2.8_EX_DC_OS_HSM_Summary.html

Photozone: The Sigma AF 17-50mm f/2.8 EX DC HSM OS is a highly competitive APS-C standard zoom lens and Sigma's best product in this class so far. It's not a flawless lens, though, but none really is.

Score: 3.5 stars for the Sigma vs. 3 stars for the DA*16-50

http://www.photozone.de/nikon--nikkor-aps-c-lens-tests/838-sigma175028os?start=2

DXOMark: Sigma’s high-grade models continue to perform well with the constant aperture ultrasonic focusing 17-50mm f2.8 EX DC HSM sitting in the top slot out of those tested, and that includes Pentax’s DA* 16-50mm f2.8 and the more modest DA 16-45mm f4, albeit those models coming in second and third place respectively. The Sigma has the highest measured peak sharpness and it’s the best corrected of the 14 models in our database tested on the K-3.

http://www.dxomark.com/Reviews/Best-lenses-for-the-24-MPix-Pentax-K-3-Recommended-primes-and-zooms/Best-zoom-lenses-for-the-Pentax-K-3

Pentax Forums In-Depth Review: DA*16-50 vs. Sigma and Tamron 17-50 Comparison:

• DA*16-50 score 7.6, ambitious but flawed
• Sigma 17-50 score 8.0, simply solid
• Tamron 17-50 score 7.7, a superb value

http://www.pentaxforums.com/reviews/pentax-16-50-vs-sigma-tamron-17-50mm/conclusion-summary.html#ixzz3vAnd6kuZ

Pentax Forums User Database: 27 reviews, average score 9.04/10.

http://www.pentaxforums.com/userreviews/sigma-17-50mm-f2-8-ex-dc-os-hsm-no-stabilizer.html