I have a 2.0 m 50, and it's a pretty good lens. Sharp enough, and you'll find that at 2.0, it will be useful in many lower light situations than your zooms.
$20 is a good price - they can't be gotten for too much lower on eBay, but I've seen sellers with a bin of $40 or $50, although I doubt they'd get that much. But hey, for $20, you have a quality (if not too sexy or spectacular) solid lens that will serve you well. I think you'll be happy. Now you can bide your time, and wait for that bargain 1.2 <g> cheers, frank [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I posted a while back (a week and a half?) that I was debating upgrading from my >K-100 and also said that my pictures didn't seem as sharp as some other peoples >pictures (in the class I just finished). I also complained about manual film load. > > Well, I've bought a ZX-5N (not arrived yet). > > It was recommended to me that I try a prime Pentax lens, 50mm, instead of my >off-brand (and not so off-brand) zooms. Try it for more picture clarity and also try >it for the discipline of shooting with just a 50mm. > > I took that to heart and bid on a 50mm 1.4 on ebay. And got out bid. To cut a long >story short -- I bid on and got outbid on several 50mm 1.4, M or A (because everyone >raved about it at Stan's) And when that wasn't working I switched to bidding on 50mm >1.7, M or A. I lost count on how many I got outbid on. Because I had just bought the >new (used) camera, I wanted to keep my expenses down. > > I finally ended up paying $20 for a Pentax 50mm f2 (M). The only review I could find >at Stan's was for a 50mm f2 (A). I hoped the two were very similiar. But, I mean, it >was cheap. > > Is this a good enough 50mm prime for now? For me to see if I see a difference in >picture sharpness? (I plan to shoot several subjects with my Alibnar zoom at 50mm and >the new 50mm at the same aperture and shutter speed). Also, to try out discipline? My >zooms only go as low as 3.5 (or as high as, still confused about that) now. So f2 is >still an improvement. > > Or did I get a bad lens? I won't hate you if you tell me it is -- no big loss, it >was cheap. > > Doe aka Marnie :-) -- "The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true." -J. Robert Oppenheimer
