On Sep 29, 2006, at 5:07 PM, Mike Hamilton wrote: > I ordered a black 77 limited from McBain Camera on Sept 1. They > placed the order to Pentax Canada the next day. It's now September 29 > and I have no lens. ... > Is it unreasonable to wait a month for a lens?
Sometimes. I ordered a black FA77 after seeing it go out of stock several times from B&H. Once they had it, I had it quickly, but then they went out of stock again and weren't available for some time. Presuming that they can actually get the lens eventually, it's an excellent lens and worth it. Otherwise, look elsewhere for one. ... On Sep 29, 2006, at 8:21 PM, Paul Stenquist wrote: > I've been thinking about > ordering a black 77 limited, but I wonder if the DA 70 might be > better on APS-C digital sensors. Well, that's an interesting question mark. The FA77 is a superb lens, the nicest of the FA Limited in my opinion and one of the finest in this focal length range I've used, even comparing it to the Leica Summilux-M 75/1.4 I used to have. However, I love the quickshift mount on the DA21 Limited and wish the FA77 had the same feature. The DA70/2.4 Limited is an unknown as yet with regard to rendering and performance, but if it measures up to the FA77 in quality I might be willing to exchange for one. (And the DA35 and DA55 coming up ... sigh ... yes, i'll likely upgrade from my FA series lenses when they're released as well...) It hadn't occurred to me before that interview which was posted that part of the scarcity of the better Pentax lenses in recent times was due to the change in manufacturing required by recent regulations on lead and other heavy metals in optical glasses. I know Zeiss had to recompute and revise the Biogon 38mm f/4.5 between the Hassy 903SWC and 905SWC to accommodate the fact that the optical glasses they'd been using for thirty years were simply unavailable anymore. Whether the new formulation matched the older one in performance is hard to tell as I didn't have both of them to work with and compare, the hearsay evidence is unreliable. But it certainly presents a big issue and explains why some of the older, superb lenses might be going out of production ... the glasses are no longer available so to achieve the same results a recompute and redesign are required. Godfrey -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
