You looked on a site that has a picture of the lens at the top, but most of the Reviewers hadn't got the brains to see that they had a completely different non-SMC lens made in a different factory possibly in a different country, (wherever the Takumars are made). Others acknowledged that they had a different lens, but still did a review anyway The SMC version cost twice the price of a Pentax_F 50mm f/1.4 ....... so that's £600 in todays money

Not a very good review anyway.... they didn't have a
picture of a single twig in the middle of the frame

How do they come up with a value for money rating?
A prime for £1,000 or a zoom for £40 which is the best VFM

Wait til they see it's got a . . . . . . . Mirror!

Great shots Dave, the bubbles are really nice
they look multi-coated

Apart from Leica no one else has ever offered a lens
in the f/1.2 to f/2 range that's good wide open

An M42 Yashica is about the best I ever had

I'm glad that you've sorted that out, but I think the kit lens shot
is out of focus.... better to try it outside. I wouldn't think
you'd see much difference.

To give you some idea of what to take and because I mentioned
how good this zoom was earlier in this thread.....

These are just some test shots taken F 28-80mm All at f/10.
JPG's only taken. No PP or sharpening just reduced.
The exif should be intact.

Can't post direct 1280 wide....

F 28-80mm All at f/10 (I use 1/3rd stops)
(The lens is good at 28mm f/3.5)

http://uppix.net/6/a/d/e26ce723962f39feaa7698b0be5d0.jpg

http://uppix.net/1/7/d/4a903c6886dbc26f726f31d2e9d16.jpg

http://uppix.net/0/f/9/f8ae727c396eb19bf047836493150.jpg

http://uppix.net/e/b/5/f1f98e0feeab896ec218f1afb48e8.jpg

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If you look at the pop-up VFA Target Test at the bottom of
this frame it's very purple at f/1.8

http://slrgear.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/1519/cat/45

Ricehigh describes a quick way of carrying out focus adjustment
on AF lenses only here:

link

A very important point to note about LV....

LV is controlled automatically by the camera body, in doubled f-stops per step from wide opened, according to the brightness level as metered, but NOT according to the set Av by the user nor by the camera in Program mode.



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This is a good explanation of chromatic aberration and if
a Canon EF 85/1.2 L USM shows it I don't think we can
complain.

http://toothwalker.org/optics/chromatic.html

Dean, be careful using AF in poor light or tungsten lighting
it's usually inaccurate. Try MF instead.

Edit: Matt posted whilst I was writing this. If you are
able to focus manually with a magnified LV that should be
OK... not quite spot on, but somewhere within the DOF
that your looking at.


-

It could be a focusing issue. Try a photo of a magazine with
lettering on it at 45deg to see if any of the lines of type
are in focus.

By zooms I mean modern digital designs which generally are
better than old primes.... there aren't many new primes and
there are also some excellent old zooms such as the F SMC
28-80mm f/3.5-4.5 which is as good as most 28-35mm primes.
Apart from the LTD's most primes are very old designs.

I remember Practical Photography testing the F series and
the 28-80mm was so good in the centre wide open that there wasn't
much point is stopping it down. The edge performance graph
was also much better than the F 28mm f/2.8 which sells for
about £200 these days.

The latest shot in my portfolio of the bee was taken with
the 28-80mm.

I posted sometime ago a comparison of various lenses and
the kit lens held it's own, although better lenses are
available.

There is one quite exceptional Chinon that's worth having but
they are as rare as hens teeth It's the 100mm f/2.8
with the apertures going in the opposite way to normal.

It's sold under several different brands. I managed to persuade
a collector friend to part with his mint copy a couple of years ago.

This is the Porst branded one:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/praktinafan/sets/72157625736442408/show/

And some extra info:

http://forum.mflenses.com/chinonflex-100mm-f-2-8-in-m42-mount-t18348.html

If Spotmatic's got one it must be good

I'm not selling mine by theway