Hi,

Anyone who is suggesting this lens exists is indulging in pure speculation and nothing more. Just because one lens hood may have appeared once means absolutley nothing.

Over the years there have been other instances of lens makers listing new lenses in catalogues, only for them to drop the intended production run for reasons best known to themselves. There are Olympus OM lens leaflets showing lenses which never made production.

There is no evidence whatsoever that production examples of this lens exist. Zeiss produced pre-production working prototypes of a few lenses for the Contax system, including a 25mm f1.4 and an 18mm f2.8, they just made a handful and they never reached full production. I would suggest this is the case with the Pentax SMC-M 35mm f1.4.

cheers Steve.

Hi Daniel & George..

...oh dear, I agree with you both, of course you are correct...

"He's quite right. The greater DOF of a small ap. lens allows for a wider range of "acceptable" focus. It doesn't help to obtain true focus"

..but, we are not disagreeing here, you are simply talking in more specific terms..I was talking more generally. I do say to obtain 'initial' focus it is often faster and easier with a slower lens..BUT as you quite rightly say, to actually obtain the ctitical focus, the shallow DOF of a fast lens should help.

The point I was trying to make is that for most users, fast lenses are actually NOT worth it..in answer to the OP.

Since probably about 90% of photographers use f5.6 onwards and very few use lenses wide open (or near) then fast lenses are pretty pointless and getting 'critical' focus is uneccessary since the DOF will take care of any slight miss-focussing.

cheers Steve.

Hiya,

To reply to this:

"I think you have this round the wrong way,...a faster,ie, larger aperture gives less depth of field and thus allows easier image 'snap' than a smaller aperture....."

I do realise what I said and I stick by it. It is a misnomer that fast lenses with shallower depth of field are always easier to focus. I have found that more often than not, the increased depth of field of slower lenses actually makes them easier to focus in many instances.

I know what you are saying and you would think it makes logical sense, but I have found the opposite to be true quite often. I am not the odd one out here either, there are many others who have had difficulty focussing fast lenses like 50mm f1.2's because the depth of field is TOO shallow. Sometimes a shallow DOF actually makes the focus point more critical and you end up going back and forth to find it.

I just tried it again yesterday, I used a film SLR with a standard screen (not Beattie or similar) I went into the garden and used two different lenses, one a 80mm f1.4 and the other a 60mm f2.8. The f2.8 lens was much easier to focus. Yes, the image was darker, but crucially the f2.8 lens snapped in & out of focus much better than the f1.4 lens.

Cheers Steve.

Hi,

There is lots of mis-information about fast lenses and lots of myths.

Fast lenses were basically developed for pro use, especially for low light shooting and also action work. Lens makers assume they are going to be used wide open or near to it, so most fast lenses are actually computed to have the highest performance at the wider f stops, so for instance you would expect an 85/1.4 lens to perfom best at about f2 to f2.8. In contrast a slower lens is computed to work best at the middle range of f stops. So if you tend to use lets say f5.6, f8 and f11, then normally the slower lenses will perform better.

People also often forget that slower lenses are FAR easier for lens makers to make and usually have better performance than their faster and far more expensive cousins. People fall into the trap of assuming just because fast lenses cost far more, then they must have better performance...this is simply untrue in lots of cases.

The other myth is that fast lenses must be faster and easier to focus. I have often found this to be untrue. They do let more light in, but often the difference is so slight that it is near to impossible to see any difference. What actually happens is that the much reduced depth of field with a fast lens actually often makes them harder to focus.

If you conduct an experiment like I did, compare the focussing 'ease' of an 85/1.4 with an 85/2.8 and the slower lens is often easier to focus, because the image snaps in and out of focus far more noticeably with the slower lens.

Many people are now buying these fast lenses due to falling prices and yet many are trading in slower lenses which often have better performance!

cheers Steve.

Hi,

The only company that I know that used to make clear glass protection filters was Contax. They made Contax 'P' filters in mainly 55mm thread, but also very rare ones in 49mm. They can be found occasionally on the used market.

The majority of amateurs tend to use filters to protect their lenses, the vast majority of professionals do not...also many amateurs do not use lens hoods, whilst almost all pro's do. You should ask yourself why this is...

cheers Steve.

Hi,

There has been many tears shed, quite rightly, for a lot of the independant shops gone out of business over the last three years.

However, I cannot image how idiots like this have managed to stay trading. It is amazing how bad some retailers are and some have no one but themselves to blame for going bust. I imagine that when they do go bust they will blame others for their demise...

..can you name and shame these imbiciles?

cheers Steve.

Hi,

check this out:

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00IUIt&unified_p=1

cheers Steve.

Hiya,

"Found a "mint/boxed" one at Fotofrenzy"

Matt..trouble is that these guys are one of the most expensive places in the UK, although not as bad as the 'king of the rip-offs' ....a certain place in Camden Town (not to be trusted), which I would not go near with a barge pole.

Ian...whenever I want to try to find a scarce older lens like this I do a google search every week and I usually find what I am after eventually. Also do you search on ebay.com? I have found items there being sold by USA sellers within the US only, but quite often, a nice friendly and polite email has persuaded most of them to ship overseas.

cheers Steve.

Hi,

"I sincerely hope Jessops are starting your 12 month warranty from TODAY"

EVERYONE PLEASE NOTE: This 12 month guarantee thing is a nonsense. The 12 month warranty given by manufacturers in the UK is IN ADDITION to your normal statatory rights as a consumer.

Even if an item fails after lets say, 18 or 24 months, if it is an expensive item you can still return it! and ask for recompense

The UK consumer law states an item must be fit for purpose..the more expensive it is then the law expects it to last for longer. This area of consumer law is grey, but do not fall into this trap that you can only return an item within 12 months...it is NOT true, even most retailers are not aware of this.

cheers Steve.

Hiya,

Daniel..nice one!

Betty..I would inform Jessies how many Pentax users look at this website, and the AP website, you may get figures from the moderators of these forums...then I would ask Jessies to respond publicly via this forum...they can only say no.

cheers Steve.