| Bad Copy
Bought the DA* 16-50 in Singapore 3 weeks ago, S/N 9023660 from the most reputable photo store there. A complete lemon.
Very soft wide open at wide focal lengths. Found SDM slow and very inaccurate - it wasn't obvious B/F or F/F - given enough time I could get focus dead on. This is with a K10, so it might have performed better with a K20, but it was next to useless, found myself constantly reverting to manual focus (I wonder whether this is why they designed the extra-wide focus ring?).
But it has quickly started to fall apart. The zoom ring has jammed completely, twice, the first time at around 35mm - it then mysteriously unjammed. It now won't zoom wider then 20mm, the barrel suddenly has quite a bit of play in it, more than my old 16-45, and there is a small part rattling around somewhere inside the lens.
There is nowhere in this region that can fix it - it will certainly have to go back to Japan. I hope Pentax will consider replacing it (it's under international warranty). I have never experienced this kind of quality problem with Pentax products in 26 years of using their products. |