They look great.The colours get slightly deeper, particularly the blue skies. That's one of the reasons I increase contrast and saturation in some situations.

What lenses do you have? I am thinking of getting a Sigma 15-30 EX DC and maybe a Tamron 18-250 for those reportage/photojournalism type stuff.

I increase the contrast to +2 on mine because of the average lenses (along with sharpness at +1)

PS: I would also like a Sigma 150mm EX DC macro and a 50mm (Minolta or another good brand), but the 50mm is a hard find.