Shel, Every consumer Tokina that I have looked at are heavier, metal bodied behomeths compared to the Tamron and Sigma and even many Pentax zooms. The Tamrons being fairly light (I have two for my wife and daughter, are starting to mechanically fall apart) balance well on the light, Pentax bodies, but over the years, the Tokinas have been built like tanks. Their website is www.thkphoto.com. They have a 24-200 zoom they he might find interesting.
Hope this helps. Bruce Dayton Friday, January 04, 2002, 3:17:04 PM, you wrote: SB> A friend of mine, heeding advice from this list, purchased a ZX-7 a SB> little more than a year ago, and grabbed a Tamron zoom (28~200 maybe - SB> don't recall right now) to use primarily for family snaps and a trip SB> that he and his wife took last year. SB> The lens is toast. It doesn't work and he's been told that the SB> "electronics" are fried, and that it'll cost $220.00 to repair. Now, SB> frankly, I don't give a rat's ass why the lens failed, or whether or not SB> it can be repaired, or if the price is reasonable, or even if the lens SB> doesn't have electronics. It just frosts me that the enjoyment of his SB> recent trip to Mexico was lessened by the lens breaking in some SB> fashion. He, and his wife, are very disappointed. Sheesh! all he SB> wanted was a simple lens for a simple camera. SB> Yeah, I know that things break, but the truth is, a lens should last SB> longer than a year, and not cost a week's pay to repair. SB> Good. Now that that's off my chest, what's a good replacement lens? SB> Build quality is important, optical quality commensurate with family SB> snaps and occasional 8x10, color print use. Cole's like me - he likes SB> to keep things a long time. You should see his old Spotmatic and Super SB> Tak 50/1.4 - sharp, clean, and working perfectly. SB> So, what does the list suggest for a quality consumer lens? - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
