Any advice on a Pentax K mount short to medium zoom.

[squirrel$$$bandit]

The A 35-70, the one with the constant aperture, is indeed a tremendous bargain. I also recommend the A 70-210...don't get the Takumar, get the A one. Really great zooms for the price, and the former is very compact.

 

[titrisol]

vivitar series 1 are very good zooms, same with the Tokina zooms.

I bought a new(er) Sigma zoom 28-80 and a 100-300 which allow AF and I found them to be very good. I bought those for my Father-in-law K100D and they worked flawlessly, and even came with a MZ-7 for me!

 

[SCOTFORTHLAD]

In the end went for the Pentax M 75-150 F4,having seen a nice one at a fair price.🙂
It's not as short as I first planned,but on reflection I should try harder to keep using the 50mm standard lens.
The zoom will help me with portraits and informal shots of the grandkids,plus at the long end should help me with my pictures of merchant ships in the Port down here.
On top of which it's performance is highly recommended in almost every refence I've seen both on RFF and elsewhere.🙂

Thanks again everyone for the helpful comments.
Brian.