Originally posted by x4rd
Is it still a screw drive lens?
Yes, it is.
DC motor would fit this lens more than original noisy screw driven AF.
So, I give the lens a quick rest at work. Just put it on my K-1 and took a few shots mainly to see a difference between WR and ED AW versions...
Lens is almost identical to WR version even the hood is the same part number as the older version :-)
From reflections on both front and rear elements you can see differences in color - new coatings are clearly there :-)
Crops from SOOC jpegs shot at F2.8:

Annoying CA of original WR version.

New AW version with ED element is not suffering from CA. Finally! The question is astro - but the weather doesn’t seem to get better anytime soon.
Subjectively speaking, I think the new lens is a little bit sharper than WR.
Details:
Glad the K-1 has a Wi-Fi so I could download the SOOC jpegs to my phone and upload them.