Originally posted by HGMonaro So, when I bought a Nikon to bolt on the back of my newly acquired 2nd hand (from here!) 100-300/4 Sigma, I bought the 16-85 Nikkor. Perfect travel/general purpose lens for me. I don't need a wide aperture for this kind of use
Finally, someone who gets this new Pentax lens. The purpose of this lens is not to replace the DA 16-45 or the DA 17-70, but to compete with the Nikon 16-85 and the Canon 15-85, lenses favored by serious APS-C shooters who can't afford expensive, faster lenses. I have seen 12 by 18 and larger prints from the Nikon 16-85, and it's a very nice lens (although the DA 17-70 is better). If you use it for wide depth-of-field photography and shoot it on a tripod, the low aperture becomes a non-issue.
I don't see this new DA 16-85 as being a replacement for the DA 17-70, and not merely because of the (mostly) slower, variable aperture. The DA 17-70 is really unique among APS-C lenses, as it provided performance falling between high-end and mid-range offerings, something that neither Canon nor Nikon offer in their APS-C lineups. I suspect the DA 16-85 will perform more like other mid-range zooms with comparable range.