Is lens problems (design and sample variation, often referred as "QC" issue) a Pentax specialty?
I revisited Joseph Holmes' sites and read this comment there again today:
Joseph Holmes - News: Photographers Comment on Quality Control
"1) Tim Ashley In GetDPI's forum:
You know, we can always question other people's methodologies and memories but in general his experience exactly matches my own. I test every piece of equipment I buy as soon as I unpack it and have an absolute rule that if it isn't right, right out of the box, it goes back immediately.
Since I got into MF I have had to return (or test in store and not buy) more items, especially lenses, than I can remember. My Phase kit arrived with a wonky kit lens. Silvestri could have had a lot of my money if I had been able to get any of their kit to focus. Mamiya lost me after two 28D's were just C**P and I eventually went second hand. I could (and have in the past!) go on and on but the fact is that this stuff is mighty sensitive to poor QC and poor QC is widespread.
Had I read this article before starting my journey in November, I would at least have known I was entering a vale of tears. As it was, there have been months of lost shots, detective work to try and work out which of many elements was the weak link in the chain, a feeling that everything I purchased was doomed. Now I learn that this is just standard. And, controversially, I have come to the conclusion that anyone who has not had the same experience has probably been either extraordinarily lucky or, more likely, they are insufficiently observant or demanding."
This was in response to Joe's long and famous essay documenting MF digital reality. The article is way too long to quote,
Joseph Holmes - News: Medium Format Problems
but there are some summaries nearing the end:
"So let's count up the lenses:
1) Two 24 A-D's (not counting the third one), 2) Three 35 A-D's, 3) Three 28 HR's, and 4) Three 35 HR's. And out of these eleven, how many appeared to meet the MTF spec? Two for sure and three fairly close but not really. Or maybe three with two not quites. Two to five good lenses out of eleven. And I'm still nervous about some of the five. Really what I'm looking for is just to be able to have the same thing (or better) from MF digital that I've had with my 4x5 for decades, and even to achieve it using the larger aperture optimums that Linos claims they are achieving.
I take that as approximately a one-in-four chance of getting a good superwide, view-camera-type, German lens when you order one. And for every lens that gets rejected by one photographer, if the thing isn't made right by Schneider or Linos/Rodenstock or one of the other vendors who assemble elements to shutters (possibly including Linhof, Sinar, Horseman, and Cambo), it then just serves to reduce the chances of getting a good one for the other photographers to almost zero. And these things aren't exactly in great supply to begin with.
The sorry thing is that other kinds of super wide lenses which might be useful with this format are generally worse. The 35 mm Hasselblad HC f/3.5 lens (built by Fuji) is a real lemon, as mentioned above. One of those was Don Wood's Hasselblad HC 35 lens, which is so blurry around the edges that we both regard it as useless -- it's simply impossible to get a sharp picture, even if you stop down to f/22. ..."
Surely it looks we live in a world far from being perfect.
Last edited by leping; 01-09-2011 at 01:53 AM.
Originally posted by surfotog 
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