The 28-70/4 in famous for an element towards the rear of the lens that seperates. Several of us here, including me, have had it be fine one day and very foggy just a short time later. There is no fix for this as Pentax has no replacement parts. Look at a bright light thru the rear of the lens, you will see a "milkiness" in one of the rear elements.
Don > -----Original Message----- > From: Patrice LACOUTURE (GMail) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Sunday, September 04, 2005 6:10 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: 28-70/4 is Soft > > > Hi all fellow Pentaxists. > > I just got my new *ist DS (at a very good price BTW) and am very happy > with it, but I noticed today that my good old 28-70 f/4 AL produced soft > images. What I mean with soft, is more like a sharp image, with a kind > of halo around every contrasty detail... A bit like those "soft" > filters, or what one would obtain digitally by stacking a blurred copy > with 50% opacity, or by blowing onto the front element right before > shooting. > > So I'm wondering whether it could be the rear element separation > syndrome discussed above... What exactly is it supposed to look like? I > looked through the unmounted lens, but could not notice anything > suspicious. I also looked at the rear lens at low angle to spot any > unusual reflection, but could not identify anything suspicious again... > The DS takes good pictures with the (initially far inferior) Tokina > 19-35 3.5-4.5 and the (fairly good) M 135 3.5 Super Takumar. > > I had a protective filter that happened to be rather dirty. I removed > it, cleaned the front lens carefully, and this improved the image, but > some of the burring effect remained. > > I've been really happy with this terrific lens since 1997, and parting > from it will be a bad experience, although with the DS I'm quite > interested in something more like a 18-125 or at least 18-80 if that > exists... if it was not for the financial aspect, as I just > bought the DS!!! > > Regards to all faithfuls of the PUG, I've been back for two weeks (since > my DS), and it still looks like a very good mailing list. Much more > constructive talk and less flame wars than in most others... > > Patrice >
