They are all good friends, but I'm not quite so sad as to give them names!

So many lenses and so little time!

I have used all three in most versions. The f/1.7 is the best of the bunch optically and much more useful when abused with close up lenses, bellows and the like.

The f/1.4 is very contrasty and suits reportage very well, but has lower resolution so if it's fine detail you're after it's not the best choice. It's great for gritty, low light shots on Kodak Tri-X.

The f/2 is an excellent design but doesn't seem to have quite the same quality control so I've had good ones and not so good ones. A good one would be just about the same as the f/1.7 version.

The M and A series lenses seem to have a different "quality" of image than the SMC Takumar and K lenses. The older lenses have a very classical sort of feel to them, but gain their best performance at more like f/8 or f/11. The later lenses peak at around f/5.6 to f/8 and have a more "modern" more contrasty style.

The "quality" comment refers to that hard to describe overall optical quality that leads people to discuss the merits of German lenses as compared to Japanese ones.

It's a great spot and you've been foryunate to catch some interesting light. It always rains when we go there...

There's a lot of talk about rights but there's hopefully more to a relationship between seller and buyer than whatever the consumer (and seller) rights are. It's a two way relationship.

Anyway, just out of interest I've pulled out a clause from a Conditions of Sale from a supplier catalogue and it says something like this: "Goods remain the property of the seller until paid for in full" so the actual legal situation could be anybody's guess.

If we have a lawyer in the house, perhaps they could clarify the situation?

A bit of confusion here. Zenit or Zenith lenses are Russian.

Carl Zeiss Jena are East German lenses made after the war split Germany. The quality is fair, designs being based on pre-war Zeiss lenses.

Carl Zeiss West German lenses are the high quality ones that we then find on Rolleiflex and Hassleblad cameras. These were made in Oberkochen in West Germany. Jenoptik is the successor to the Eastern Carl Zeiss Jena after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The Russian lenses are made from tooling taken in war reparations from the Carl Zeiss factories.

Yes, I'm quite sure. The MX and ME series can apparently overheat with Lithium batteries. Other reasons might include problems with gas emmissions from some batteries.

It's not a problem as we can still buy silver oxide and alkaline G13 cells. The former last about one year, the latter about six months.

I'm only asking the question, not making a judgement...

Here's a new question - does it matter if it's £130 or £13,000?

And another - what if "the retailer" was in fact the New Assistant who got a bit muddled?

Discuss....

For correcting colour even "Auto Colour" can work out quite well.

I like the image, by the way.

Interesting one this. Let's have a look at it from the other way round. You are a dealer and you have two cameras, a Leica at £4000 and a silmilar Voigtlander at £400 - in error you charge correctly for the £400 one on your invoice but supply the wrong goods and actually send the £4000 camera.

The buyer then contacts you and wants you to credit the original invoice and send a corrected one, but still only charging £400.00

Does it feel right? Or would you want to say sorry, I'll exchange the goods for the right ones or you can keep the wrong ones and pay the balance?