Originally posted by stevebrot I vote for the variability in quality. Out of curiosity, what year of manufacture is your Zen? I got mine new in 2008 through a convenient new friend in Krasnogorsk who was willing to gift me a lens in exchange for a small monetary gift. (Gifts cross borders duty-free. Import duties for optics from Russia were and probably still are quite steep.) The bullet points on mine are:
- Made-for-export MC version in Pentax-K (made in 2007)
- The rear filter for my lens is coated, though I don't know if is the same process as for the lens itself
- I have found mine to be surprising flare resistant
- It came from the factory unable to attain focus on any subject further than about 7 meters. Fortunately, the adjustment is easy.
- Surprisingly, mine performs a well on the K-3 as it did on the K10D
Steve
Thanks Steve. That's helpful info, and I agree that it's probably manufacturing differences. My serial number is covered by black tape that I've used to attach a little hood for APS-C shooting, so I can't tell you what it is. But my lens is an M42 version bought new in 2014, so probably a later build than yours. The rear filter on mine was uncoated as far as I can remember, but I can't find it to check.
The lens claims to be multicoated with a coating that changes from brownish to greenish depending on the angle that the light hits it, and it tends towards a bright, warm rendering. My highest resolution digital sensor is the 20MP AA filterless in the K-S1, and the Zenitar is just as sharp on that as on anything else I've tried.
Here's a random sample shot, but it's only APS-C. I don't own a digital full frame, and I've never had a need to use the Zenitar on film. Can be seen in high res by clicking through to Flickr.