Originally posted by hjoseph7 Is there a good 35-70mm out there ? It'll be great not to have to multiply those numbers by 1.5 !
Yep, there are three:
There's the M 35-70mm f2.8-3.5
The A 35-70mm f4
and the A 35-70mm f3.5-4.5.
Interestingly the final one was also sold as a "Profile", "MC Cosmicar-A" and "MC-Finex-A". The Profile seems to have been bundled with later P30s, while the latter two were presumably more common in the USA as I've never seen either for sale here. Optically I think they're identical to the SMC Pentax A version but for simplified coatings - they are multi-coated, just not Super Multi Coated.
Talking of which, if someone offers you a Takumar Bayonet or Takumar-A 28mm f2.8 for cheap then grab it. It's optically the same as the late Pentax-M 28mm f2.8 (which in turn is the same as the A series lens), just with the non-SMC multi coating. Said lenses were also offered as CPC Phase 2 and Cosmicar-A. Most of the Takumar Bayonet/Takumar-A lenses have a lousy reputation but this one isn't bad at all.