Originally posted by alexeyga Well, if I was photozone I'd call it the "undoubtedly the most desirable standard zoom lens in the current Pentax lens lineup" lens a well... because at the time Pentax really had not much to offer... both 16-45 and 16-50 are a tad too short on the long end... not to mention that 16-45 is quite large for the speed and range offered... So as far as "standard zoom" lens goes, yes 17-70 is much more desirable... Well, it was until the 18-135 was released... At least as far as i'm concerned, i'd take the 18-135 over the 17-70 on any given day due to the fact that it's more compact, longer and WR'ed... Test charts? I leave that part to measurbators... I actually do use my camera to shoot something else besides test charts...
So, if you are not talking about measurebating (on which the DA17-70 does quite well), then what is the basis for saying that the IQ of the 17-70 is not worthy of being a comparison for zooms in the range we are talking about? Have you actually used it?
I've taken a few thousand shots with it, and found it up to the task. I'll probably have an 18-135 as well, someday, as it appears to be a nice lens, but I see that lens as serving a different purpose. It seems like we've both participated in other threads where the consensus was that one should not expect IQ from a 7x zoom that you find in a 2x or 4x.