I am very satisfied with my DA*16-50, as others have mentioned the color and contrast are very good. Its a bit soft wide open esp in the corners but sharpens up ALOT when you stop down. The price is rather high but you need to take the price of other similar lenses into context - the canon equivalent is about $1.5k, the Nikon equivalent is nearly $2k. I basically use it more than any of my other lenses, so it has definitely been good value for me.
I had the SDM in mine die but it was replaced under warranty, had no issues since then.