>From: Matt Giess <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> Increasingly, manufacturers are >> tailoring optical quality more precisely to price class as they learn >> not only to engineer quality in but also to engineer it out. The days >>of >> a cheap lens potentially being a great lens are passing. This may >> account for the increase in popularity of the older equipment made in >>an >> era when this did not happen (and equipment was not cheap...)
>I'd personally argue that a major factor in some modern lenses being a >bit poor lies in the refinements to the design process, in particular being >able to design to a particular price whilst ensuring the lens is at least >adequate for the target market. Yes. I was not saying that companies were deliberately designing lenses with the goals of low optical quality or poor build quality simply to give definition to their market line. I was saying that modern manufacturing technology makes it possible to make serviceable equipment much more cheaply by cutting corners optically and mechanically, and at certain levels of the market this is acceptable. There isn't nearly as much difference between any of the K series or Spotmatic series cameras as there is in the current Pentax offerings, and this is because they have figured out how to make a $150 camera for those folks who only need, want, or can afford a $150 camera. They still make "old-style" premium products, and they still carry "old-style" premium prices. Same goes for lenses. I've heard some very high prices quoted for what it would cost Pentax to put out a re-issue of the Spotmatic and 50/1.4 Super Takumar to the original specs. The thing is, while Pentax might find a way to make a good design more cheaply, or to produce a better design using an already cheap process, or invent a new process which allows better AND cheaper designs, they can't afford to simply make better lenses whatever the cost if they want to compete in the market. There is much better control now of the balance between quality and manufacturing cost than there ever was, I think. It does not mean that they can't make a great lens anymore, simply that users are now used to being able to get acceptable lenses cheap and out of the habit of paying the cost of premium products. Leica survives in a very small niche. DJE
