From: Alin Flaider <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2003 12:56:27 +0200
Alarmingly low... it's half the price of the FA 20-35/4 - and it looks to me the crippled mount and lack of aperture ring cannot justify the price reduction by themselves. I'm afraid it's the optics that may be compromised for the starist d, with acceptable definition in the center but poor corners and vignetting.
The FAJ's are budget, consumer lenses. They compete with the low end lens offerings from the competition. Plastic lens mount and no aperture ring. I doubt that the FAJ 18-35 is going to be any worse than the Cosina/Vivitar/Soligor AF 19-35.
Pentax has promised new lenses, tailor made for the *ist D in fall. I don't consider the FAJ 18-35 to be custom made for the *ist D, it's a budget wide-angle lens for Pentax entry level bodies.
It appears to me Pentax is cutting every corner in order to lower the price of the digital slr.
Are they?
Too bad they don't have control of the image sensor as Canon does.
How do you now that? To my knowledge, the Sony CCD in the *ist D is a tweaked version of the chip in the D100. It's tweaked by Pentax and it's manufactured by Sony to Pentax requirements. It's not a chip that they have taken from Sony's warehouse. It's a Pentax-special version.
Best wishes, Roland
_________________________________________________________________
