Originally posted by normhead Read the lens rental reports on those things. No camera company is immune from that, and everyone else is just as and. Even$10,000 Canon and Nikon telephotos arrive de-centered from time to time. It's not just a Pentax issue, you have to assume the cost of avoiding de-centering would out-weigh the benefits to the camera companies. Lens Rentals reports that most companies don't even have the equipment to test for and correct de-centering.
True, not a Pentax only issue, but the limited lenses should have tighter tolerances (they are prime also not zoom lenses except one). Lemons are a part of life, but something has to be done to improve the quality of premium lines.
Sigma uses their Foveon sensor for measurements or so they say... the thing is premium lenses are expected to be perfect, I know tranportation has a lot to do with the end user experience both in lenses and in hard disk drivers. The packaging of lenses is not adequete for all manufactorers in my view.
The LensRental "OLAF" is something that service centers should have, the cost of equipent has skyrocketed and people's expectations along with the prices.
FUD is part of reviewing and Pentax has suffered a lot, during the digital period and the movement of production lines outside of Japan.
I am sure that not all SDM lenses were problematic but the whole issue influenced my purchases to an extent. Nikon had a lot of problems lately but the brand name is still going strong.
For me IBIS is the reason I chose Pentax for digital and I will stick to the brand, it makes more sense economically.
But I will aknowledge that sometimes the grass is greener on the other side. And sometimes is greener on our side.