The lens reviews section on this forum is a very valuable resource when making decisions on purchases, But (and it's a big But) it can be a big mistake to simply use the scores to make a decision - the real value lies in actually reading several reviews (good and bad) for a lens and looking for common themes in the users comments.
Perhaps i can explain this better with an example:
The reviews for the FA* 24mm f2.0 lens give an average rating of 9.22 - a pretty good score for a collection of 23 reviews
- But if you start reading the 'Cons' comments you will notice an odd few comments along the lines of "Soft wide open", and if you look at the 'Pros' there are quite a few more comments where "Sharpness" is mentioned. Now my experience of top quality lenses (Limiteds, Stars, etc) is that they will perform well at maximum aperture but be better when stopped down slightly (just one stop) - so the comments that say "soft wide open" could be overly critical or could they point to a problem with some lens samples ?
Well, I found my answer when I bought one last year - It was a beautiful lens, colour reproduction was exceptonal and sharpnes at mid apertures (f5.6-f11) was superb, but at f2 through to f2.8 it was soft, almost "dreamy" - I decided that this wasn't the lens for me and that those reviews pointing out the softness were right and that maybe others were looking through their Pentax-Pink tinted spectacles and seeing the softness as a feature
So I returned the lens
A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to buy another copy, so I re-read the reviews and decided that I should try again. This copy matches the overall profile of the reviews - it is sharp at f2.0, and better when stopped down slightly, and the colour rendition is beautiful
- So now I am a Happy Bunny and have learnt what the common characteristics of this lens should be from these reviews
***************************
Because I have lurked around this forum for a number of years and read many posts I now have a feel for which posters and reviewers are in tune with me. I will give more weight to some reviews based on who wrote it, and there are some reviews that I just take with a pince of salt (unfairly in some cases, but there have been one or two that are almost FanBoy reviews).
I doubt there will ever be a perfect review system, but until there is the PentaxForums review section is probably the best there is