----- Original Message ----- From: <Scott Rankin> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: ZX-50 and Manual Focus 80-200 Lense
> William: > > Thanks for your response. The ZX-50 does have an A on it. The mounts on the > Pentax and the mounts on the Rokinon look identical and it mounts without > force. The reason I was asking was because of a post by Flavio Minelli on > Nov 5 ( re: few basic doubts) where he said: ".....Besides AF lenses tend to > cost more and since, as I > told you, the reverse is also true, you'll be able to use your MF lenses > with any AF camera (except the MZ-50 (ZX-50))." It looks like the lens needs the "A" setting to work properly on the camera you have. If so, it should work properly. > > It appears that Mr. Minelli has since unsubscribed so I could not ask him to > elaborate. > > Changing gears slightly, I was doing more research of the archives and found > a thread about replacement lenses for the ZX-5n series. In that thread, you > said that the 28-80 lense is a "bottom feeder" lense. I am sure you are > right. I bought it because I wanted to get into SLR photography without too > much initial investment. My question is: Just how bad is that lense. Is it > made of glass or plastic. Is the picture quality drastically different from > a better lense if the user is a beginner. Also, what about the ZX-50 body > itself. Is it also inferior? You appear to be a straight shooter so I would > appreciate more of your input. I've only seen a couple of them. Both appeared flimsy and rather badly constructed. One that I saw had a badly mounted aperture which was a good 3mm off axis when stopped down. I can't comment on the optical construction. My tendency is to believe that if the product is mechanically sloppy, it won't perform well. Unfortunately, the only real way to gauge how good a lens is, is to compare it to a known very good lens, which is often difficult because dealers tend to not stock the very good lenses from any manufacturer, and are less tempted to stock them for Pentax. The MZ cameras all share the same basic platform. It seems to be an OK platform for light duty use. I have heard of problems with them in hard use though. William Robb
