Great outdoor lens

I bought this lens for the purpose of my Iceland trip. I have an allround zoom - Sigma 17-70mm/2,8-4, but knowing the wet conditions I intended to shoot in in Iceland I wanted a weather-proof zoom. So I gave this Pentax a try. First it started with a dissapointment straight by unpacking: the rubber seal on the inside barrel which extends during zooming didn´t hold in it´s place, so the weather-sealing was questionable. However I had no time to return the lens and wait for new one so  I took it with me. I shot more than 1000 photos on my trip and my impressions are much better than I expected. Since I shot solely outside (landscapes), the slow lens speed was no issue. What was important, the lens survived some serious showers as well as waterfall mist without problems (I am sure this would have ruined my Sigma). The focal range is very universal, 16mm being great for wide landscapes and 85mm fairly usefull for distant objects or animals.

What is most important is optical quality and here the lens surprised the most. The lens is really sharp, I couldn´t see a difference in sharpness between it and the HD DA 15mm Limited. What is more the lens is sharp throughout the focal range, compared to my Sigma  17-70 much sharper at both ends. The contrast is great, the colours are vivid. The HD coating efectively fights with flare. Of course there is some visible barrel distortion especially at wide end, but no big deal. Focusing is fast, silent and reliable, I encountered absolutely no focus hunting. Quick-shift focus is also nice to have (something I miss on my Sigma).

I still have to process RAWs and pixel-peep the pictures, the fist look at the pics on 17,6" screen of my new laptop is very promising though. I will post some pics here as soon as I process them.

Generally the lens surprised me. I didn´t expect much, but the outcome is great, especially landscape pictures. Of course given the slow speed this lens is not suitable for low-light shooting nor for portraits and blurred background. But for what it is aimed at - outdoor shooting where universal allround lens is required - it is close to perfect.

As far as downsides are concerned: the lens is quite expensive (in Europe), I paid 631 EUR for it which is pretty much for a slow variable aperture zoom. The luminosity itself is not great, especially compared to the new Nikon counterpart (which is able to offer f2,8-4). The issue with the seal indicates the quality control is still not pefect. The lens hood is pretty big and inpractical when reverted, making the lens big for storage.

Because of the seal issue I sent it back, but apart from that the lens convinced me and I plan to buy new one again (as soon as I sell my Sigma 17-70). And since I have the fast Sigma 18-35mm, I won´t mind the slow variable aperture.