Originally Posted by jsherman999 
You could test for centering defects, FF/BF in low tungsten light (tricky for almost any lens,) but really you should get out and take a whole bunch of real-world shots and see how much it pleases you.
Thanks a lot for that jsherman. Maybe my expectations were just too high..
Dont want to be a measurbator (as demonstrated by limited skills) but unforunately I have very little time to see if the lens is good enough. I'll be leaving for East Timor shortly for an unknown time, so returning it from there would be ... tricky at best.
I will let it rest from here. Sorry if I abused this thread!