> I have had 3 of this lenses. One was very sharp at all f-stops, one was > good wide open and excellent at all other stops, and one was absolutely > bad wide open and ok at the other stops. That means either that there > was quite a bit of difference lens to lens new, or that at least one of > the 3 had been dropped hard enough to decenter an element (if it was it > had been repaired because the lenses showed no sign of damage.
It is not uncommon for 50/1.4 to be disassembled as they get dusty inside easily. For the M, just pull of the rubber and inspect the screw underneath and see if there is any tool marks on it. Pentax also use a number of spacers to fine tune the distance between elements so it is possible they have been messed with.
Alan Chan http://www.pbase.com/wlachan
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