Above: Side-by-side Size Comparison for the New DA 18-135 Against the DAL 18-55 (a K-r "pink" colour kit lens is shown).
Our international expert internet poster FengweiXXX (aka FrankXXX, who is actually a Chinese dealer of Pentax at Singapore, IIRC) strikes again. Here is his first test on the DA 18-135, which is to be put on sales at November 26th at Japan, as previously announced.
Well, wait! Isn't that November 26th is the birthday of my Blog? Oh, Pentax/Hoya, thanks for the celebration and your birthday "gift"! ;-D
http://forum.xitek.com/sorthread.php?threadid=809323
(in Chinese, Google Translated English Page Here)
Small samples and crops for a few images taken at different focal lengths (lens stopped down) are shown. Image quality is not bad IMO but I just wish to remind you that that guy does not post any bad image with any Pentax gear ever. So, Beware! No matter how, the samples shown above are somehow impressive, at least on the first glance, as always for Frank's samples! ;-) Thumb up, Frank! You're my Hero! ;-D
p.s. Frank usually shoot RAW and I found that he has very good skills in Post Possessing and is much knowledgeable in the use of those conversion software. Do note also the heavy sharpening applied and halo/artifacts that can be found in his crops, anyway.
Update (11-25): More (small) samples were uploaded by Frank, see:-
Hands-on w/ SMC DA 18-135mm/3.5-5.6 Lens (Many Photos)
Well, while the samples are not bad in general (as usual, as I've said), I yet can see some rather heavier sharpening applied than my like.
More:-
(Alexa) Traffic Ranking of Pentax-Theme Websites
Site Traffic of My Blog Matches 30% of that of the Dpreview on Pentax Contents
DAL 35/2.4 and DA 18-135/3.5-5.6 Full Size Samples
DA 18-135 First Photo Samples
Does the New DA 18-135 just Look Too Close to the Nikkor Counterpart? :-o