To be honest, why spend good money on test charts?

When to take pictures, are they sharp? If they are, that's fine. Sometimes we worry too much instead of enjoying the photography.

In many years of photography I have yet to find a lens that didn't focus where it was supposed to. On this basis then either it's rare, or I am so incredibly lucky. It could be the latter of course.

An impromptu test target that works well is a newspaper or map pinned to a wall. Make sure the camera is absolutely parallel to the wall and that you test at open aperture and a variety of focal lengths and distances. Focus error would have to be averaged out over these or you'll have different problems again.

Thank you!

Steady on there. A simple enquiry first might resolve matters. Threatening negative feedback is actually against eBay codes of practice and is likely to cause you a problem with eBay on the grounds of intimidation.

Apologies John - Where/who/what is JP

Regards[/quote]Nothing to apologise for. JP Service Solutions are the official UK Pentax repair facility.

The appropriate advice can be found here on the CAB website:

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/your_world/consumer_affairs/buying_on_intern...

Photobucket is a good place to host images and then they can be linked to. No file attachments though.

I remember that Stefan, but finding it now is like seeking a needle in a haystack.

You could send lens and camera to JP for matching together.

If you'd asked this question even 20 years ago, it would have been primes every time.

Now it's zooms every time. The combination of better technology and a smaller format (APS-C) have combined to produce lenses of a quality that was once totally out of reach.

Primes now have just smaller size and wider apertures as their main advantages, but better quality is much more doubtful than it was.

Whatever the reasons, and it's all been debated before, it's interesting and we'll have to glean from it what we will.